Would you share some examples of really good parenting that you've observed?

We all beat the bad parenting to death! Let’s talk about some good things we’ve seen.

I was at the court house, in line for my tags, and there was a lady with two small kids there. I’d guess they were about 5 and 7 or so. Well, it looked like a pretty long wait, so Mom set the kids down on some chairs while she stood in line a few feet away. At one point one of the kids wanted to touch some stick-on Christmas displays on one of the windows….they looked like some sort of jell. Mom said, “Yeah! I wanted to do that too! Go touch and tell me if they are really squishy!.....They are? That’s neat, huh! Ok. Come sit back down.” They did. She was just rapping with them in a friendly, quiet manner. Then the kids started getting antsy. Started kind of pushing each other. Mom dropped her voice low, and said, in no uncertain terms “If you two can’t control yourselves, I will control you, and I guarantee it won’t be as much fun.” There was no hint of cajoling or pleading in her voice and there was certainly no “Ok?” or “Please?”. It was nothing but a steel and ice promise. The kids chilled immediately. Then Mom switched again and with a smile and a laugh in her voice said, “Tell stories! ...Quietly..” So they did. Mom kept asking when the unicorns in the story were going to show up. The kids kept saying unicorns weren’t real. Mom said, “That doesn’t mean they can’t show up in your story!” She just had a neat, NEAT way of dealing with the kids! Just a neat relationship. They were under perfect control, too.

(At one point I whispered to Mom “What would you have done if they hadn’t controlled themselves?”
She whispered back , “I haven’t the faintest idea! I just scare them a little and let their own imaginations take over!” And she laughed. She laughed a lot with those kids!)

It was cool, and they were very quiet.

As another aside, this is my second day in a row at the court house. I needed this and that had to go back today….yesterday there was another lady with a couple of kids. Kids ran over to the window to touch those gel displays and that Mom goes, “MARKIE!!! GET BACK OVER HERE!!! DON’T TOUCH!!! STOP IT!!!” I remember thinking…that’s exactly what I’d want to do too…why not let them? With permission, of course….