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I think promises to children should generally be rare and meaningful, not just thrown around. The conditions always change with children. If you already promis
by jeffdavis 8y ago
I think promises to children should generally be rare and meaningful, not just thrown around.
The conditions always change with children. If you already promise ice cream and then the kids start behaving badly, what can you do? You either get into threatening mode ("no ice cream for you then!") or break your promise or you put up with it.
Furthermore the kids don't even enjoy it unless it's unexpected. As soon as they feel entitled to the ice cream, they are more likely to argue about who has more than to just smile and eat it.
- xorcist 8y agoI have anecdotally found this true as well. Toddlers and small children have a terrible working memory. It really is what's limiting their ability to count, speak coherently etc. Promises often needs to be repeated to stick. Therefore they need to be made meaningful. Making promises about a banana when working memory have purged that information five minutes later just makes promising stuff pretty empty (for really small children, that is).