Some people should not be allowed to be parents!! Raising a well mannered, well behaved, caring, sharing, child takes a lot of WORK! It’s non-stop! You have to be totally consistent, you need to keep to a schedule, and you have to be on the same page as parents.

What’s up with the tail wagging the dog?? Our parents will drop the kids off, and the kids are expected to put on their own shoes. Some of the mom’s are so frustrated with the process that we have to say, “Mom, just leave, we’ll do the shoe thing!” If you can’t tell your child to put their shoes on, without a big production, how are you going to tell them anything else, and have them listen to you?

Manners…. those have gone out the door apparently for many families as well! We had 3 year olds who had never “sat at the table to eat”, and who had “never used utensils”! What’s up with that? Where do they eat? I guess they wander around…..and eat with their fingers. How’s that going to work when they’re older and want to go to a friend’s house?

And the TANTRUMS!!!! It becomes increasingly apparent that the word “NO” was not an often used one in their households! Do parents think those tantrums just “go away?” They have no idea how “hard” it is for these kids to come into a formal setting, where they have to learn to accept the word “NO”! It’s like…. “Hmmph, I thought I was a princess!! Why am I not getting my way???”

Bedtime??? Hell no! Whenever/wherever the kid conks out is just fine with them. My kids always had a bed, and a bedtime, and it was very strictly adhered to. For MY sanity. I was home all day with my kids in those days, and by 7:00 I wanted them asleep so I could have an evening.

Potty training?? What’s up with 3-4 year olds coming to pre-school still in diapers??? I don’t get it! It’s nasty! I realize, obviously that in certain circumstances, it’s going to take an extra long time. In many of the cases of our kids, it’s strictly laziness on the part of the Mom’s. It’s the same as discipline. It’s much easier to just give in, than to have a “fight”. Otherwise, how is it that we’ve potty trained 3 students at school in the 6 months they’ve been coming to us! Two of the most severely autistic boys I worked with were both potty trained before kindergarten. If their Mom’s could do it…. I can’t imagine any excuse for anyone else! I don’t know how they did it! Oh wait a minute! Yes I do! They did it with persistence, patience, and consistency! Yay for them!!!