Wine Chats : Billi and Lyndsey let loose on parents who are too soft to parent their kids

Soft parenting is all the rage right now, but it makes us rage in a totally different way. This week on The Nightly, we crack open a bottle of the lovely Hidden Sea Sauvignon Blanc and let loose on parents who are too soft to parent their kids.

A generation of soft parents

Billi: What has happened to this generation that we are so soft on our kids nowadays?

Lyndsey: I feel like with soft parenting, your kid is going to go down a slippery slope. They’re not going to have respect for you. They’re not going to progress the way they should and compared to other kids their age. And this is just my opinion. This is what I’ve witnessed. I’m no childhood expert, but I just see all the wrongdoings that it actually does to your child. And why? Because you don’t want to hurt their feelings?

Billi: And that’s what I’m saying. Why are we so traumatised? What’s happened to us? I get being gentle towards your kids. Obviously no one’s saying beat them and do crazy stuff to them. Treat your kids well and kindly. But I just feel like that soft parenting doesn’t actually prepare the kids for the world.

Soft parenting in a harsh world

Billi: Do we live in a soft world? Are we living in a gentle space? This is probably the most horrible we’ve been to each other with social media and all the wars happening in the world. So if I’m raising my kids in this really soft, gentle way, like “calm yourself, your tantrum is perfectly reasonable”. Like what is happening? I don’t understand why we are just letting these kids have these big emotions. Big emotions are fine, but they have to be proportionate to the situation.

Lyndsey: Look, I just think it’s all wrong. I think that there’s no good to come out of it. When you have a conversation with a child for five minutes to brush their teeth and the kid is like, I don’t want to brush my teeth - and then the child still doesn’t brush their teeth, well, how has that been a win for the parent?

Billi: There is none of that in my house. No. When I say brush your teeth, you brush your teeth. It’s as simple as that and I’m not doing them a disservice by teaching them that.

Teach your kids R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Billi: I think the first thing you have to do is teach your kids to respect you and to respect the way that you’re running the household. You have to teach them that. And if you’re not teaching them that, then what are you doing? How are they supposed to respect people outside of that house? And then how are they supposed to gain respect if they don’t know?

Lyndsey: I’ve seen it happen, I have multiple people in my orbit like that and it doesn’t work. Yes, you have to nurture your children and their limitations, you can’t be a dick of a parent to your child. They have to feel loved and safe and all that. But I just think when you let them walk all over you, they’re going to walk all over you and they’re going to turn out to be these children that other kids aren’t going to want to be around.

And the moral of the story is…

Billi: What’s the moral of the story, Lyndsey?

Lyndsey: Look, so many things. Just don’t be a soft parent. Don’t take parental tips from us and just discipline your kids a little bit. Just discipline them.

Billi: Don’t make them our problem, you know, don’t make them the world’s problem. Sort them out at home.

Lyndsey: Okay. I think we need to hit the button before we offend any more people.

Thanks for tuning in for another episode of Wine Chats on The Nightly, and remember to save the date for the same time next week. Chat soon!