Recycled post: Setting limits

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I rediscovered this post from 2010.  I liked it so I thought I'd share it with you.

So - I'm the unpopular mother at the moment because I won't let my son (12 1/2) see the latest 'Harry Potter' movie.  He understands that it is scary and that he's probably better off not seeing it, but he said that he just feels left out.  All his school friends are off to see it at the movies over the weekend (or so he tells me - whether that is reality or not is questionable).

I make him feel left out a lot because we won't let him watch 'M' rated movies.  He has seen a few - at parties, friend's houses etc, but in general we'd prefer him not to.  I also don't let him watch whatever he likes on TV - again, seems to be fairly common among his friends.

I was also presented with the famous, "But All the other Mums are Letting their Kids do It" award last week by my daughter.  This was over a sleep-over birthday party that I was saying no to.  We had a bad experience last year where the girls only got about 4 hours sleep and as a 9 year old it took days for her to recover from it.

Plus what's left to do in high school if they do it all in primary school? I know that we're on the conservative end of the spectrum, but I do wonder if anyone's really that bothered about what is going into children's minds.  Are there any other parents saying 'no' to their children?  I'm sure that parents are saying 'no' - perhaps we're just doing it over issues at different points on the spectrum.

Comments

Eb said…
I wonder what will happen when ours finds out there is such a thing as a "But All the other Mums are Letting their Kids do It" award, and hears word that some kids think it might influence their parents by awarding it. More tough times ahead for both the award-ees and award-er I suspect.
January 27, 2012 at 12:03 PM
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