RULE 5

 Rule 5: Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.

Swing and a miss!

After being thoroughly engaged to this point by Peterson's book, I found this chapter to be a huge letdown. In fact, after describing it to my wife, she decided to just skip it.

Although the author makes numerous valid points, the overall tone of the chapter is off putting. After his first use of the word monster to describe a belligerent child, I gave him a pass. But later, Peterson uses it again and again as a child descriptor as well as the the word varmint.

In describing his interaction with a neighbor's two year old and a separate engagement with his own son, he uses the phrase 'good boy' as positive reinforcement for appropriate behaviour. I thought that kind of labeling went out with the hula hoop. And isn't that phrase also messaging 'bad boy' to a child when he misbehaves.

How ironic that Peterson writes at length about the internal critic we all harbour deep within. But don't  "good boy" and "bad boy" labels only feed that self-denigrating voice inside a youngster.

He also draws upon examples from his own experience about how to shape a child's behaviour. With pride he describes how a thumb-cocked flick of the index finger to a child's head can work wonders at the right time. As well, he explains in detail how he got a child he was babysitting to stay in bed by pining him to the mattress and how he resolved his own stubborn child's meal time resistance by stuffing food into his mouth. Sounds like bullying to me.

Enough said.

And, just in case your wondering, here's my Rule 5. 

Don't ever put down a little one's personhood. Rather, always try to connect with it.

I can only hope that Peterson continues to hit home runs with the rest of his book while he leaves the Little Leaguers alone.