Latter-day Saint Life

6 Pieces of Popular Parenting Advice You Should Ignore

Nicole Harmon, a marriage and family therapist at Amber Creek Counseling, shared her expert advice. Harmon currently lives in Eagle Mountain with her husband and three daughters. Here are some parenting rules she thinks are worth breaking:

1. Don’t let your kids eat dessert first.

Just as we’re encouraging you to break some common parenting “rules,” Harmon says we should teach our kids that, within reason, sometimes rules are for breaking.

“We go through life teaching our kids to follow the rules, which is great. But life doesn’t always follow the rules,” Harmon said. “Sometimes it is OK to eat dessert first, to skip a day of school because grandma is in town or to tell a grown up a friend’s dangerous secret even though your friend made you promise not to tell. Teaching kids to follow the rules is important, but it is also important to teach them that there are times we need to break the rules.”

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