Love and Logic

I'm sure many of you have heard of about love and logic before...It's another newsletter that I received and the one I got today was....


Dear Insider's Club Member,

Enjoy this week's article from Jim Fay about doing the right thing even though your kids may not like it.

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

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My Kids Would Never Allow That

I last wrote about a mother who went on strike. She was the one who returned home each day brandishing her book, heading for her room. She'd read until her kids had the house cleaned up. Only then would she cook dinner.

The results were so good that she told her friend, Melissa, about it. "Oh, my," worried Melissa. "My kids would never allow that!"

"WHAT? Her kids would never allow that," I thought. Has Melissa relinquished her parent ticket? Has she turned over family leadership and authority to her kids?

Is it possible that Melissa has bought into the fallacy that a parent's job is to make sure that kids are constantly happy? If so, her kids will grow up to be spoiled and entitled people who are frequently unhappy, believing they are victims whenever they don't get their way.

Parents who set reasonable limits often experience kids who are unhappy in the short term. It is natural for kids to be frustrated when they test limits and don't get their way. But this helps them turn out to be good people who are happy in the long term.

When parents do the right thing, it often feels wrong in the short term—especially when their kids throw a fit. But it usually turns out to be the best thing in the long term.

Thanks for reading!
Jim Fay

Learn more about how to avoid the disaster of entitlement with our book, "From Innocence to Entitlement."