Kids should be the most important part of the family, right?
I mean they are the most vulnerable, they have the most to learn and everything we, as parents, do should be to secure their future. Right?
Wrong.
Turns out that treating your children as if the family only exists because of them is not very good for them.
A leading parenting expert and child psychologist has penned an article about why children should understand that the world does not revolve around them.
Dr John Rosemond bravely points out that parents should be the most important in any family.
"Many if not most of the problems they're having with their kids - typical stuff, these days - are the result of treating their children as if they, their marriage, and their family exist because of the kids when it is, in fact, the other way around. Their kids exist because of them and their marriage and thrive because they have created a stable family."
He says that pampering children and putting them on pedestals is creating very entitled children who are unprepared for the real world.
The psychologist believes that good parenting means that your children should know they are second-class citizens (for now) and that is to their own advantage:
"People my age know it's the heart of the matter because when we were kids it was clear to us that our parents were the most important people in our families. And that, right there, is why we respected our parents and that, right there, is why we looked up to adults in general.
It was also clear to us - I speak, of course, in general terms, albeit accurate - that our parents' marriages were more important to them than their relationships with us.
Therefore, we did not sleep in their beds or interrupt their conversations. The family meal, at home, was regarded as more important than after-school activities. Mum and Dad talked more - a lot more - with one another than they talked with you. For lack of pedestals, we emancipated earlier and much more successfully than have children since"
The article by the well-respected parenting expert has now gone viral with thousands agreeing that modern day parenting has taken pampering to a whole new level, with parents sacrificing too much and doing too much for their children who become spoilt and don't reach their full potential.
He equates it to being like an apprentice and a master - the apprentice needs to know that they are learning from the best"
"The most important thing about children is the need to prepare them properly for responsible citizenship. The primary objective should not be raising a straight-A student who excels at three sports, earns a spot on the Olympic swim team, goes to an A-list university and becomes a prominent brain surgeon. The primary objective is to raise a child such that community and culture are strengthened.
"Our child is the most important person in our family" is the first step toward raising a child who feels entitled.
You don't want that. Unbeknownst to your child, he doesn't need that."
What do you think of this? Old-fashioned tough love or straight-talking parenting advice?
You can read the full article here 
