The wimpy parent on television whined on and on about how she has to give her child what he
wants because he cries when she says “no.” She had a defensive answer for every question asked. She
swore, she didn’t want to hurt him psychologically, so she felt obligated to give him whatever he
wanted. That’s the crux of the wimpy parent syndrome. The fear that children, and teens will become
mentally unbalanced if they are chastised, immobilizes wimpy parents.

Emotional scarring and low self-esteem threatens parents as if the syndromes were equal to the
bubonic plague. It’s almost impossible to say “no” to a child without somebody complaining that the
parent is too restrictive. If word gets out that our teens don’t have the latest electronic gadget, we may
as well hotline ourselves. We have lost our power.

Am I the only person who has noticed that the more teens are given the worst they get? Where
does it end?

We struggle between enforcing rules, and giving in to leniency. The guilt is overwhelming. We
struggle to maintain power and some semblance of control in our homes. Meanwhile, society pushes us
towards leniency. Society tells us if we require too much, teens will become emotionally unbalanced.

The truth of the matter is, the more “choices” our children have, the more “choices” they want,
and the less capable they are at making “good choices.”

God forbid that we should require a child to learn from their mistakes. Horrors of horrors, that
a teen should feel uncomfortable in any way. Heaven help us that we give a chore that isn’t directly
related to them, such as washing towels and folding them. We know that we’d better not make teens
responsible for younger siblings; if this is done on a consistent enough basis teens could be labeled
a “parentified child.” How much damage do you think they will suffer from these experiences?

All of this protection is supposed to be good for our children. I don’t believe it’s good. In fact, it
appears to me that the exact opposite is happening. Our teens are becoming more impudent,
demanding, and immature as they get older. This over protective, over indulgence parenting style is
crippling America. It’s causing more problems than we could ever believe. If there is one thing that
contributes to serious problems it would be, the overly permissive, overly protective parenting style that
has taken over America.

So this week, set limits, give more chores. Step up. Don’t be afraid to have values and pass them
on to your teens. Expect something from teens, require more than you’ve ever required before. They
won’t like it, but they will grow from it.