8 Hypocritical Things All Parents Do
You try your best to teach your children habits and behaviors to make them model citizens, but rarely follow your own advice. There are many things we expect our children to do without question, but aren’t willing to do ourselves. It may not be fair (for the kids at least), but it’s just how the world works. Whoever came up with the adage: “Do as I say, not as a do,” must have been a parent.
1. Excessive snacking.
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You monitor your child’s snack intake to make sure they will be hungry for meals, that they don’t have too much sugar before bed and so they don’t overdo the rich foods and end up with a stomachache. But when that bag or chips or box of Girl Scout cookies beckons to you, you’re far less rational.
2. Not cleaning up after ourselves.
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Not picking up your toys can land a kid in time out. But there’s a pile of mail to be sorted on the table that’s been there since last week, and you and your partner are in the midst of stand off as to who’s going to deal with that pile of clothes that needed to be folded three days ago.
3. Too much screen time.
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You carefully dole out screen time to the kids according to the APA guidelines, but thanks to your Twitter habit and Facebook addiction, you frequently have to charge your own phone mid-day.
4. Refusing to try new foods.
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You insist on presenting new foods to your kids and try to sneak them things they haven’t wanted to eat in the past. Personally, you’re never, ever going to eat broccoli even if it is covered in cheese sauce, but you get frustrated when your child acts the same way about green beans.
5. Climbing on things.
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Of course you own a stepladder, but when you need to get the big serving platter down from the top shelf of the cabinet, it’s so much faster and easier to just hop up onto the counter. The same goes for dusting and killing spiders on the ceiling.
6. Refusing to share.
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Your kids know that if they can’t share a toy it gets taken and no one gets to play with it, no matter who it technically belongs too. But there’s no way you’re going to let your sister borrow your brown suede boots for that date this weekend. You just know she’ll step in a puddle and ruin them, and they look better on you anyway.
7. Being mean to others.
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We teach our kids that it’s not nice to say mean things about other people, but that doesn’t stop us from snarking about co-workers. And grown-ups can be downright nasty to each other over the internet.
8. Going to bed on time.
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When your child pleads for just ten more minutes before lights out, you stand your ground and tuck them in. But even though you know you’ll be cranky in the morning if you don’t get to bed at a reasonable hour, when you crawl under the covers, clearing your Netflix queue is suddenly of the utmost importance.
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