Teacher to Parents: Stop Spoiling Your Kids!

This social post went viral and it’s not hard to see why. It’s full of common sense that flies in the face of modern parenting failures. Here’s the post from Jonas Harrysson:

I have worked with kids for almost 16 years and there are several things that I’ve noticed children getting worse and worse at.

No.1. Children find it very difficult to be bored! There constantly needs to be something going on.
Please stop spoiling and servicing your children. It’s not dangerous for them to be bored sometimes.

No 2. I’ve met many parents who are soooo proud that their kids can read and count before starting preschool.
Well, I hate to break it to you, but reading and counting, they’ll learn to do soon enough. Teach them instead to play, to be a good friend, and to share.

My third point is that many children find it difficult to show gratitude, both to other kids and towards adults. Can they get an “another one” is unfortunately often a first question – and “we only get one!?” is a common complaint I hear.
What happened to PLEASE!? And thanks for dinner, and thanks for the ride, and so on?

I have no children at the moment, but if I do sometime in the future I plan to teach them to play, to be good friends, to show gratitude and to be bored from time to time. Once they’ve learned those things, then I’ll teach them to read and count:)