Spoiled Children

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - December 11th, 2013

How to raise non-spoiled children is a difficult subject. Today we are going to talk about how NOT to raise a spoiled child. For many parents, this is an important issue. In this day and age, we here so many stories about spoiled children. But before we dive in, lets talk about the different types of “spoiling” that parents do, and the un-intended negative consequences of these actions. This blog post will focus on Material Spoiling.

Material spoiling.

This type of spoiling is what most parents think of when they think about spoiling. This consists of buying or giving presents and items to your child, often to avoid a fight, or based on some feelings of parental guilt. Material spoiling is very common, and contrary to popular belief, its not only restricted to parents with a large income. A mother or father buying toys they cannot afford for their child is spoiling a child, just as buying a 2,000 dollar hello kitty necklace for a four year old child is spoiling.

Why is this type of behavior potentially damaging? Well, for the one thing, it reduces the importance of hard work. When you give your child everything they ask for, particularly if it is a burden to you, you are depriving your child of the valuable chance to work for something they enjoy.

Take a moment to let that sink in for a moment. You are depriving your child of the joy of WORKING for something. It’s a strange concept. But think about your own life. How often do THINGS make you happy? And, when its something you’ve worked for, do you enjoy it more?

Besides the issue of enjoyment, there is another important factor to consider with this method of spoiling. Think about how your child is losing out on learning how to do things like tolerate delay and frustration.