The 44th Juvenile Justice Symposium theme was “KEEPING KIDS AS KIDS THROUGH A CARING AND SAFE COMMUNITY”
There’s an excerpt from the book, “The Newbie’s Guide to Positive Parenting” by Rebecca Eanes, that has been used around the world. Though it’s the most ubiquitous quote to date, it also happens to be the most controversial since people misunderstand it without its surrounding context. We often expect much better behavior and more self-control from our children than what even we, as grown-ups, are able to demonstrate. Eanes has expressed wholehearted agreement and acknowledged that she, too, has been guilty of holding her children to a higher standard than she holds herself to. Still, there are many others who have misunderstood it to mean that we shouldn’t hold children accountable for their behavior and that we should disregard all disrespect and bad attitudes. “So often, children are punished for being human. They are not allowed to have grumpy moods, bad days, disrespectful tones, or bad attitudes. Yet, we adults have them all the time. None of us are perfect. We must stop holding our children to a higher standard of perfection than we can attain ourselves.”
