When you discipline a child, it is no easy road to navigate. On one hand, you want to give your kids the world, and on another, you want them to learn responsibility, respect, and how to fend for themselves in this not-so-accommodating world.
But in today’s culture, a growing trend of helicopter parenting and ‘spoiling kids rotten’ has launched a domino effect of damaging repercussions that one exhausted teacher, Erin Weigle Axson, recently called out in a viral Facebook post about discipline — and her rant has both teachers and parents alike cheering for positive change.
Read her insightful words of child-rearing wisdom below:
Dear Parents,
I rarely go off on social media tangents. It’s not my style. But this has been laid on my heart and the good Lord won’t let me rest until I’ve put it out there. But, this is LONG, so swipe to the next section of your news feed if I annoy you.
Not all of you are going to agree with what I’ve written. Some of you will be downright mad after you read it. As with anything, this doesn’t apply to every parent out there. I do have those of you that support me and work with me – you know who you are and you know how immensely grateful I am for you.
As this school year came to an end, I started some research about the current state of our school system. I realized how much discipline was lacking in our children. This all started as I stared at myself in the mirror one morning, wondering if I should look and feel THIS exhausted. I am a mother of three, we are a farming family, and I am a middle school teacher. Most would say that right there is a sure-fire recipe for exhaustion. But this goes deeper than simply being tired. This school year has left me feeling depleted, defeated, and unsure of my place in my little corner of the world. Rather than throw in the towel, I thought I’d do some digging and try to get to the bottom of my feelings. I was surprised by my findings, and what initially provided me some twisted form of comfort – knowing I wasn’t the only teacher feeling this way quickly turned into fear for our society’s future.
Lately, it seems that many parents have adopted a bizarrely lenient attitude toward the discipline of our children as well as bending over backwards to accommodate their children’s every demand. It’s unclear what’s causing these parents to believe that children should be subject to no limits, no discipline, and no stringent requirements at school. Whatever the cause, these parents are, in fact, doing a terrible disservice to today’s young people and to society as a whole. And, they are leaving their children’s teachers feeling frustrated, ill-supported, and utterly exhausted.
The rate at which good teachers are exiting the school system is skyrocketing, and if things continue at this pace, no one will be willing to go into teaching at all. The average new teacher these days is lasting a whopping 4 years before calling it quits. Those seasoned teachers that have witnessed this strange, cultural shift firsthand are dropping like flies, realizing they don’t have the energy to fight this uphill battle. But, perhaps the saddest thing is that these schools are turning out children who are ill-suited to being constructive, productive members of our society.
