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Parenting isn’t an easy job, it just might be the hardest job of all. In today’s world, every parent is fighting a losing battle against teaching respect and values to their kids. I have heard this countless time that “my kid won’t listen to me no matter what I do” so, what does it take to get to this point of no return.

Teaching respect starts from home, you have to make your kid listen to you. You have to understand the fact that you have more power on the kid that he or she has on you. You need to show your kid who is the boss or else they might just become the boss of you. You need to be relevant in every step of their life, you need to keep a vigilant eye, and you need to keep the battle up because giving up isn’t an option.

Whatever values are taught to the young ones, are the ones he or she, is most likely to carry his or her whole life. Show your displeasure in things that are wrong and he or she will remember your reaction when handling it again, like smoking, alcohol, abusing and bullying.

Kids don’t do as they are told, rather they do as they are shown. If they see you respect your elders, your partner and also yourselves along with them, they will learn the same. A kid needs to start respecting himself/herself in order to start respecting others. Respecting themselves matters more than anything else in a kid’s world as well as their parent’s world. A kid who doesn’t respect him/herself is likely to get abused and bullied, he is most likely to take up smoking or drinking. In short, he/she will not have care about himself/herself. This isn’t something you’d want for your kid.

You may have heard the phrase be your kid’s friend, but stop and think for a minute, if you do become their friend you will lose the unique parent/child relation. You, yourself would give up the parent authority and influence on them. You must be thinking, “that’s wrong, being a friend is great and kids are more comfortable that way” but think of it this way.

Friends have equal status, they have no authority only opinions, and most of the time their opinions don’t even matter. What if you become their friend and when the time comes you can revert back to the parent authority. This isn’t the kind of power you want to give to your kid, believe me. Be friendly but do not give up the authority you have on your kid. Do not let them forget that who is the parent.

According to a study, when kids were asked that if they want to be friends with their parents, their answer was “NO”. Funny isn’t it? As parents, you want to be their friend, but as kids, they don’t want to be your friends. I wonder why? The answer is pretty simple if you become their friend, who will be their parent? Who will play that important role? Giving your kid the confidence to confined in you is a different thing than becoming their friends. You always need boundaries to enlist respect in your kids.

Let your kids be the kids they are. When you make your kid more mature, braver, more independent, what you do is, you take away their innocence and then parents complain that their kids act older than their actual age. Even teenagers need to understand that they are still dependent on their parents, and their parents are the one who will save them from this big scary world.

Sit with them, talk to them, hear them out. But have the last word. Always have the last word. No matter how bad your kid’s nag, make them listen to your “NO” if you give up once you will be doing this for the rest of your life. Do not let your kids rule you or there will be no respect ever.