Sit down and eat together

When you were growing up did your family sit around the table together eating a meal? Did your parents join you and did you all have lovely chats about your day? Or were you one of those families who ate in front of the TV with little to no conversation because you were glued to what you're watching? Or maybe you all ate in separate rooms?

Mine did not sit together. The kids ate at the dinning table while parents ate in the lounge room in front of the TV. There was no conversation and if kids talked at the table we got in trouble. Some times sent to the laundry to eat or to bed without finishing our dinner.

Now I have my own family we always sit together at the dinner table for meals. We chat and talk about our day or things that are on our mind. We take the time to sit and enjoy our food and our time together as a family. Now and then one child will be told to eat more / talk less, or calm down because they're getting a bit silly. Overall it's fun family time together.

If your children have bad teeth it's your fault

I have this motto: if children have cavities the parent hasn't done a good enough job. I'm not talking about random teeth disorders that are out of your hands. I'm talking about outright neglect. As parents it's your job to look after your children. This includes their weight, their health and their teeth.

Too many parents give their children flavoured milk, juice, lollies, sugary cereals and chocolate in daily doses or ever couple of days, a couple of times a week. Many do this with their babies and toddlers. There are too many children with cavities and rotten BABY teeth! That is outright abuse in my books.

Your child knows nothing about tooth decay, eating healthy foods, brushing regularly. Your job as a parent is to teach them this. Help them avoid bad sugary foods. Teach them to brush their teeth morning and night. Not let your children's teeth rot because you're too weak to say no to that bad food YOU KNOW they shouldn't be eating.

Children and pets

Did your children get a pet for Christmas? Did you have a talk about how the pet is their responsibility? How they have to feed it, give it water, clean up after it. How you won't be do any of that for them.

Come time to actually care for the pet and responsibility falls on the parents shoulders no matter what they think they previously arranged with the children.

Sound familiar? Does to me. I hear it all the time. Parents complaining about how they got their child a pet, told their child they have to take care of that pet and now the parent is doing all the work.

These parents say things like 'Now I have to feed it all the time' or 'I'm the one having to empty the litter tray' or 'I have to walk the dog because they won't do it'. When I tell them they don't have to do any of it they start making up excuses as to why they do. The pet will starve, the child always forgets, the child just won't do it.