Blog Story: Both Sides of the Parental Spectrum: By Nat Herder

It’s shocking to see that there is such a wide dichotomy between parents and children, and that the suspicion is only going to grow and fester. Its not that parents giving their kids a drug test or giving them a strict curfew is necessarily a bad thing, but in the wake of The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, the relationship between parents and kids seems less like a loving family and more like a drill sergeant to his new recruits. The concept of personal responsibility has been lost; both spectrums of the parenting world are ineffective. The best way to be a parent is too let kids run free, make their own mistakes, and learn from them just as it was meant to be. Extreme discipline and extreme complacency will only take away the child’s sense of independence. If we don’t let them know what its like to be self-reliant now, how will they react when they are suddenly cast out into the real world. They will either melt down when they realize they have no idea how to bear down and work, or they will party past the point of good taste when they realize they have no idea how to have a good time.