The child is asking you to give him 300 rubles to go to the disco; you see that there are some bottles, which he can hand over and get 10 rubles, so you say, "I’ll give you 290 and you’ll find 10 more yourself." Thus, you check if your child is able to see these 10 rubles in this world, and having seen them do something to have them in his pocket. He may not see them, but to start blackmailing, threatening and getting capricious, "Then, I will not go anywhere!" He is what you created. Depriving such child of money to make sure he is good-for-nothing is pleasing your vanity.
When I was in the seventh grade at school, I also had various "desires" – a tape-recorder, Lewis jeans, etc. My mom made everything clear at once, "Our father works alone. The money he receives is for basic needs. We don’t have extra money." I was under 14, but with my father’s connections, I got a job at a construction site where I earned 180 rubles for two months. The tape-recorder cost 220 rubles, but my summer holidays were over and I could not make more money. Then my mom added the rest of the sum. This was "support." In the following year I didn’t ask my mom – I knew I could earn money myself. I got the same job and made money to buy expensive jeans. Everything was honest – I was told that there was no money, I was shown the place to get it, parents didn’t take away my money, they respected my plans and supported (adding the rest of the sum for the tape-recorder), when they saw I couldn’t cope myself.
What should I do if my child is so independent that he doesn’t allow parents into his life, behaves self-sufficient and aloof?
It looks like a runaway from home. There was too much control, fear and nightmares, prohibitions and questions, examination and tortures, intervention, personality surgery and cutting off its pieces. Therefore, he ran away. It is not about independence. He may have really hard times, but he prefers to die than to ask his parents for help. He doesn’t let you in, safeguarding his life, because he is fed up with your intrusion. He doesn’t want to be controlled, disapproved, manipulated, helpless being a culprit at an eternal trial, where you are the chief judge and where sentences cannot be appealed. You are attempting to get into his life and be quasi helpful, but he doesn’t allow it, because he knows that it is dangerous for his life and for his life values.
The lack of respect and trust tells that you are not worth respect and trust. Respect appears, if you respected your child, trust – if you trusted him. If respect for other people's powers, the credibility of someone else's identity, the sanctity of personal space of each member were valuable in your family, you do not have to worry about anything – the child will come to you to share news, success and joy. If it was not so, there is nothing to worry about too – he will never return to the family home. Maximum, he will come to your funeral. But he may not.
My husband believes that we have to teach our son to be independent right from his childhood, but I don’t want to deprive him of his childhood preferring to pamper and support him. What will be the impact on the child if the parents have different views on his upbringing?
It will be a bad impact. Both parents betray their child. So, we can say that he doesn’t have parents at all. You are both so preoccupied by the concept of "right-wrong" that you don’t pay attention to the child himself. I have a question to you, "What does your child think about this? Does he want to prolong his childhood or be independent?" Unfortunately though, your ideas on upbringing have nothing to do with your child. Your mutual relationship is more important to you than your child is and you are using him as a trump-card. Each of you plays your own rightness. "I think he’s mature!" – "But I think he is just a kid!" You don’t have to think – here is your child, ask him. Most likely, you have problems with sex, or you failed in such roles as a "lover," a "friend" and a "professional."
When mom says she doesn’t want to deprive her child of his childhood, she doesn’t want to lose it herself. The child is ready to take up independence being a year and a half, when he says that he will do everything himself. He wants to carry a bag, but it’s too heavy for him. Don’t poke his nose in his weakness and enjoy his inability to help – support his initiative, suggest carrying a bag together each by one handle. Yes, the child may undertake things he can’t do so far, he will do it improperly, he may cut himself, break something, scatter, but if it doesn’t threaten his life, let him have this experience.
My son had guests and after they left we found the loss of a big sum of money, which was hidden. My son didn’t initiate the theft himself, but he was a silent witness while his friends were searching the house. Why couldn’t he defend himself, his family and our property?
Temptation is also a sin. It’s an old truth: If I don’t know or don’t see something, it doesn’t exist for me. Talking about hidden money, your passive son and his brassy friends, you are just fencing yourself off, because you feel being accomplices in this crime as you were provoking it. If you hadn’t talked about the hidden money at home and your son hadn’t known about it, he wouldn’t have boasted of his father’s grist in the street, and nobody would have broken into your house.
Are you displeased that your son didn’t rush to defend your money? Would you want him to act as a hero? Like in the movie "Pay the other guy," where "bad people" killed the "good boy," and his parents were then proud of their son not having wet his pants. Do you need that kind of a son suicide? Besides, your son didn’t accept this money as his money, which you spend on buying him clothes and food. So why are you surprised that he wasn’t heroically defending it? It wasn’t his money. He will fight for his favorite toy car, he will cripple anyone for a broken match he uses as a gun, he will not talk to you for a week for this match, but he doesn’t think of money as of the value. Does he have anything to do with this theft? How can he demonstrate something you didn’t raise in him? How can he possibly have it, if he doesn’t have anybody except you? If the child still thinks that money lives in your pocket, he will be careless with it. If you show him the mechanism of money getting into your pocket through earning, he won’t have the slightest thought to steal it.
Laying the blame for your foolery on the child is not unique. Parents, visiting my seminars, say, "We think there is something wrong with our son." The first question: "What’s wrong with you if you have such a son? If he is an apple, then you are the apple-tree. Do you want a pear? Become a pear-tree."
We often have sweets and cookies at home. While they are in abundance, my daughter’s friends come to our house. Once my daughter came home upset and I asked her: "What’s the matter?" – "The girls sent me for sweets again." – "Why have you made it your duty – providing everybody with sweets?" – "They don’t want to be my friends without them." I told her that this was not a friendship anyway, that she had to stand up for herself, not to do what she didn’t want, not to be afraid of being alone in some situation. Nevertheless, she is afraid of loneliness and loosing relations. How can I make her more self-assured, so that she could defend herself?
