Mind you, very little parents never scold their children. This is not what I mean.
But, how many parents you know that always side with their own children when something happen. I do trust my own children, will back them up when situation arises. But the crime lies in the frequency, ALWAYS.
This includes when they're telling stories of what happens in school. Especially with young children, please please please always take it with a great dollop of salt. Below are a few familiar complain from a primary kid:
* He laughs at me when I get bad marks.
It's normal to express joy when one get a higher mark. Laughing at is a very very different case. I know some kids are truly mean. But please... If you achieve something and you managed to stay stone-faced, you may cast the first stone.
* She always cut queue
* He never help me
Indeed there are some kids that have no respect for order. But the word 'always' and 'never' are very strong, yet have been very frequently used by primary schoolers in Singapore (I have no experience with secondary schoolers, yet).
* She snatched my book
Children are naturally impatient. They always want to get what the want... Fast. To me, I set 'snatching' as forcefully taking an object against the current holder will. For children, mind you, taking things (especially test paper) itself is frequently termed 'snatching'.
Always bear in mind that children have limited vocabulary, and their subjectivity is very very high. Listen to their story, and explain the other possible point of views.
So what it got to do with the worst parenting mistake?
With all the distorted fact above, likely one child will complain about friends after friends after friends. When the parents agree with the child? Right! The child may eventually ended up with no friends, and also a very negative emotionally.
So there... Prepare your bucket of salt. Treat other children kindly. They are the jems of their parents' eyes too.
