Common Sense People!

My husband and I are fans of the ABC show "Supernanny."  We like to watch Jo-Jo go from home to home helping frustrated parents get a hold of their little monster children.  And why do we like watching this show?  Not because of the fantastic production value, or because we feel that we are taking away some great advice to incorporate in our parenting.  We watch it because it makes us feel like awesome, fantastically wonderful, superior parents. Because my husband and I have common sense.

The advice that Jo doles out on a weekly basis to these helpless folks isn't anything you need a master's degree in child developmental psychology to know.  For example, here is the advice given on the "Supernanny" web site on how to discipline your older child:

Make sure that you and your child are both aware of what has happened and be clear on why her behavior is unacceptable. 

• Don’t give a warning. Remove your child from the room and tell her in an authoritative voice that her behavior is unacceptable and that she can only come back into the room once she has apologized.
• If she comes back into the room without apologizing, don’t enter into a discussion; remove her from the room again and repeat that she can come back once she’s ready to apologize.
• Repeat this step on any subsequent attempts to re-enter the room.
• Once your child has apologized, praise her, give her a hug and let her join in the activity again.

Before you both return to the room, it’s worth trying to find out why the bad behavior occurred, or whether there’s something particularly worrying her. This might be difficult to answer, especially after you’ve just given her a telling off, so make a mental note that either you or your partner should try to talk through the incident with her at a later date.


It is common sense people!  If you give your child everything they ask for and never discipline them, why are you so surprised when they don't listen to you?  To me, these parents fell into the trap of wanting to be their child's friend.  Guess what?  You aren't their friend.  You are their parent.  Common sense.

I thought about common sense again when reading this recent article regarding the changes made to Weight Watchers Points system.  Weight Watchers is basically telling it's members to eat more whole foods and fresh fruits and veggies and less processed foods.  Um, OK.  Do we really need a whole expensive weight management program to tell us that this is the way we should be eating in order to lose weight?  Common sense! 

These are smaller examples of the lack of common sense that seems to exist today.  From our daily lives, to financial problems, to the government, it seems that everyone is looking for some sort of magic bullet as a cure all for any and all problems.  Maybe what we need is to get back to good 'old common sense.