Over the holidays, I traveled back home to see my family for about nine days. The gatekeeper between me and familiar fun was the Fort Lauderdale Airport. I mean after all, who doesn’t like airports in December?
An hour early for my flight, I sat at my gate and pulled out my kindle, looking to dive into the third book in a series I’m reading. While sitting, a mother and her son (about 6, who ate a Snickers) sat across the aisle from me.
It didn’t take long. After a few minutes, the boy got flustered and started climbing over the seats and when he spoke to his mom, he didn’t use his indoor voice.
To my surprise, his behavior didn’t bother me. Yeah, he was a bit loud, but I had my fantasy novel to keep me company and good times ahead.
What bothered me was every time the mother spoke to her son, she only told him what he couldn’t do. Don’t climb on this, don’t talk to anyone, stop bothering people, etc. This occurred over several chapters of my book and at the end of it, this poor kid had 30 things he couldn’t do. It made me wonder, what could he do? As an adult, I was left confounded and I wasn’t even hyped up on sugar.
Would you consider this bad parenting? Should a parent list more things a child can do instead of what they can’t? Do you have any tips while traveling with children?