“You’re trying to control my life,” says my nine-year-old son. (我9岁的儿子说:“你在试
“You’re trying to control my life,” says my nine-year-old son. (我9岁的儿子说:“你在试着控制我的生活,”)“I don’t know why you think you can do that, but you can’t.” I received this bit of information after I asked Gabriele to put his dirty socks in the basket. And I get no sympathy from my mother, who says,“You let him have his way from the beginning.”
It’s true. I have always asked Gabriele’s opinion, found out how he felt about things - treated him as my peer, not my child. And what have I got from my troubles? A lot of back talk. At least I’m not alone; it’s a complaint heard among parents across the country.
It’s not just that we’re confused by the contradictory advice offered in parenting books. The fact is, in an effort to break away from how we were raised - to try something more liberal than our parents’ “do it because I say so”approach - our generationhas gone too far. “Today’s parents want to be young, so they try to be friends with their children,”says Kathy Lynn, a parenting educator.
“When it comes to discipline, our society has gone from one extreme to the other,”says Ron Moorish, a behavior. specialist. “We used to use the strap, to intimidate. Then we had permissiveness, and now it’s about giving children choices and allowing them to learn from their own experiences.”
Real discipline, says Moorish, is about teaching. “By correcting our children when they do something wrong, we teach them how to behave properly,”he says. But this only works, he emphasizes, if parents regain their position of authority. Children will always be children. The key is for parents to choose to take the time to guide and teach their kids.
Rita Munday, a mother of four children, couldn’t believe the dramas that played out in the children’s shoe store she operated. She often saw children insist on having the high-priced, brand-name shoes. And even when the mother didn’t want to spend the money, she would give in when the kid started acting up and throwing shoes around.
Rhonda Radice, Munday’s younger colleague, is one parent who has bucked the trend and is proud of it. “I don’t negotiate with them. You can’t. I’ve seen parents come into the store and bribe their children to behave. You shouldn’t have to buy love and respect.”
1.The author’s way of treating her son ____________.
A.is shared by many parents
B.is encouraged by her mother
C.proves to be quite successful
D.shows little concern for the child
2.It can be inferred from the passage that __________.
A.parents should learn to make friends with their children
B.parents need to follow the advice of parenting books
C.today’s children enjoy more freedom than the previous generation
D.today’s parents are better at raising children than the previous generation
3.According to the passage, to have “discipline”means that parents should ___________.
A.adopt the “do it because I say so”approach
B.teach their children to understand the rules
C.negotiate with their children for a decision
D.never allow their children to have their ways
4.If Ronda Radice is the parent who has “bucked the trend”, which of the following can also be cited as the example for “bucking the trend”?
A.Parents buy whatever their children want.
B.Parents treat their children as their equals.
C.Parents make decisions for their children.
D.Parents maintain authority over their children.
5.The main point of the passage is to __________.
A.compare different ways of raising children
B.analyze the problems faced by today’s parents
C.explain the importance of understanding children
D.point out the mistakes made by the older generation