Setting Boundaries for Your Child

There are many rules, regulations, and social norms when it comes to navigating through life. Most of us don't even think about these millions of rules, regulations, and social norms when plodding through the day, however, young children don't quite have the luxury of years of prior knowledge to help them through situations that are new and unfamiliar. Young children have something else to help them with these millions of rules, regulations, and social norms...you.

Working in the field of education for the last 10 years I have had the pleasure of teaching many different kids from various cultural, economic, and societal backgrounds. The majority of these 10 years have been shear enjoyment. Teachers get to be the witness to seeing a child grow and develop into a cognitive and self-aware person. Teachers get to be there when a child achieves a goal that they didn't think was possible. Teachers get see a child move past skills that were once challenging to new and even more challenging skills. Unfortunately, over these last 10 years I have found that instead of spending most of my day teaching content based subjects like math, reading, and science, I am having to spend more and more time addressing the subjects of rules, regulations, and social norms.

Is it right that a teacher's attention should diverted from a reading lesson to address a student because that student can't stop talking to the student next to him/her? Is it right that a teacher's lunch time gets shortened because "so and so" whacked another child with a stick? Is it right that a teacher has to stop teaching a math lesson to attend to a child throwing a temper tantrum? No, no, and no. Sure, maybe you're thinking, "Well, that's part of the job of being a teacher?" Very true it is, however, so is trying to get students academically ready for the years of schooling to come. The old adage is very true in the case of raising and educating a child, "It takes an entire village."

Parents and teachers need to be seen in the eyes of child as two sides that are working together as a team to make that child a whole person. As a teacher, I am on your side parents. I too want what is best for your child, however, if you don't set the boundaries at home by discussing rules, regulations, and social norms with your child, you are going to make the teacher's job of educating your child that much more challenging. A teacher can do a lot, and let me tell we do, but a teacher can't do it all.

I encourage all the parents out there to talk with your child about behavior that is acceptable and behavior that is not. If your child does something wrong, don't just reprimand, help your child understand what they did wrong and how they can fix it. Don't just ignore behaviors that are invasive to others, nip those behaviors in the bud. It is very easy to let the reigns out too far, too quickly. It is very difficult to start pulling in those reigns once you've let them out too far.

There is by no means one defined answer to how one should set boundaries for their child, however, I think we can all agree that boundaries need to be set.