3 Things You Shouldn’t Feel Guilty About As a Parent

So much of parenting is feeling guilty about certain things. Sometimes you feel guilty because your child is the only one who hasn’t seen a certain movie and feels left out among her friends. Other times you feel guilty because you didn’t read to her in the womb. The truth is, there are so many things you’ll feel guilty about as a parent, and so few of them are actually important when it comes to raising kids. Here are a few prime examples of things you can stop feeling guilty about right now.

Not Being the Full on Boss

Even the biggest corporations in the world don’t run from the top down anymore. More often than not, even the most successful entities have a board of directors that are there to provide input on decisions, which is exactly how your family can work if you do it right. You don’t have to feel guilty if you let your kids pick their own punishments for broken rules; experts believe that kids feel more responsibility and more regret for their poor decisions when they break rules they were involved in making, so don’t feel guilty if you aren’t the kind of parent who barks commands like a drill sergeant.

Family Dinners Every Single Night

Sometimes it’s a lot more fun to toss a couple of precooked chicken nuggets and mac and cheese in the microwave for the kids and pour yourself a glass of vino to enjoy on the back patio while the kids play in the yard. Family dinners are very important, but they don’t have to be important every night. Sometimes the best run families make the most of simplicity; even if it’s not what society considers appropriate.

Not Giving Chores

Not all families rely on a chart that tells kids to do this, that and the other for money. Sometimes, the best laid chores are the ones kids do because they learn them by habit. For example, you don’t have to bribe your kids with money to load the dishwasher every night, just make it a habit and they’ll learn to do it.  If they get into the habit of automatically putting their own dishes in the dishwasher when they’re done eating, they become responsible for their own actions. They learn to do things because they are expected, not because they are paid.