Amy Bowllan

Kakie Fitzsimmons: Growing Kids Through Diverse Learning Experiences

My earlier journalism career took me to a worn torn area of the world - Bosnia - and introduced me to a person who left a lasting impression on me. Back in the mid 90s - I cannot believe it's been that long - NBC's Nightly News Anchor, Brian Williams, shared with me the following adage. He said to me, "Amy, kids today are deprived of deprivation." I had no clue what he meant by that until I became a parent and then entered the world of education. 

He, Brian, was right. 

Kakie Fitzsimmons is a blogger and co-author of Bur Bur and Friends children's book series. I asked her to respond to the issue of how to unspoil our children. 

Kakie writes -  I once wrote an article on our blog about establishing rules with kids. The post is here.

It talks about the process I went through with my son in establishing family rules. After some time, I realized this list is too big for a child his age to take in at one time. So what we do now is choose two to focus on each week. He gets to pick one, I choose the other. (smile) So I get "buy in" from him and he becomes part of the process.

To me, unspoiling is about establishing consistent boundaries and keeping them. It can be such a challenge sometimes. I try to choose my battles and unfortunately when I am too tired and don't want to give in, there are times I cave. It is this unspoken double edge sword because I know if I don't keep the consistency now, I will pay for it later. I sometimes wonder if that is more of a challenge for me as a single mother, or if everyone does it the same.

Posted by Amy Bowllan on March 31, 2008 | Comments (0)