Contrasting Parenting Styles
Nicole said she has read “dozens, maybe a hundred” articles on parenting in both her junior year psychology class and her own free time, and has gotten plenty of wonderful ideas on child-rearing from Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog. She said she doesn’t understand why her sister and brother-in-law, who both work as social workers, don’t follow her advice when disciplining or spending quality time with her two nieces and two nephews, ages nine down to eight months old.
“It pains me, it really does, to see her lose her temper with her kids and act like she’s so tired all the time,” Baggett said. “I know I could do the job better than her. I’d be so much more patient, and understanding if they were my four children. But she just won’t listen to me.”
Nicole said she constantly e-mails articles and fun ways to spend entire Saturday afternoons with children “and terrific arts and crafts ideas, and stuff about starting a garden and reading entire book series with children on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but it’s like she thinks I’m an idiot or something. My other girlfriends, we talk about it all the time when we go to the movies two or three times a week. They don’t understand it either. Like last Wednesday at brunch with my old sorority sisters, none of us could understand why she doesn’t appreciate what I’m trying to do for her. Or when we went to that impromptu concert last Monday night, we discussed it there before we headed to that after party.”
“I don’t have time for this,” Shannon Baggett said when asked to do an interview for this article. “If you want to meet me at one of the six kid’s birthday parties I have squeeze in this Saturday, I can talk to you then. Otherwise, you’re out of luck.”
“Typical,” Nicole said. “Just typical.” Continue reading
