Before you had kids, did you ever see children misbehaving or being obnoxious in public and shake your head, wondering why their parents didn’t teach them how to behave? I think most people do this, because until you have kids you don’t realize how uncontrollable they can be. This article by Annie Reneau at Scary Mommy features a great list of ten things she thought were caused by bad parenting, but are really caused by kids being kids.

Tantrumming is probably the biggest source of parenting headaches, especially when they occur in public. Sometimes kids go on a tirade about the silliest little things, but in their world it means everything. When a kid is in the middle of a tantrum there’s really no stopping them and parents have to do what they can to ride out the storm.

Kids are also incredibly gross. You can explain to them over and over that picking their nose is not acceptable behavior, but they could be keeping a boogie collection under their bedside table til they’re 10 (seriously, check).

Whining, refusing to go to sleep, lying, and ignoring people are all common, normal kid behaviors. Just keep doing your best, and someday they’ll grow up to be respectable members of society that you can embarrass with stories of their youth.

Read the full article here: 10 Things I Thought Were Caused by Bad Parenting… Before I Had My Own Kids
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