Good parents do not want their children to feel bad, experience sadness or emotional grief. To do so often causes the parent to feel bad, experience sadness and cause emotional grief. So, 
how can good parents set limits, discipline and establish family rules without causing pain and suffering? How can we be a good parent to our child and avoid being a “wimpy” parent at the same time?
Setting limits and establishing sound discipline strategies is an important piece of good parenting. Newborn babies “wants” are often identical to their “needs,” whereas toddler, adolescent and teen “wants” are often in opposition to their “needs.” Parents who do not set limits for their children to develop a healthy physical and emotional controlled life often find themselves raising children who are less secure and lacking in developmental growth and safety.
Potential Outcomes of Being a Wimpy Parent
- Children who receive what they desire at the expense of others often lose friends and self-respect.
- Children who have no set limits often learn that material items, friendships and lessons in life come easy. In reality, we all know that life is not always like this. When children learn at a young age that there’s a reason for hearing “no,” instead of a “yes,” and that manipulation and the “I wants” in life don’t always work, also learn early in life that there is value for waiting, earning and appreciating delayed gratification.
- Child who fail to learn that disappointment and sadness are not something they should be subject to often fail to take risk necessary to achieve future goals. Some child may learn that cheating, stealing or lying to achieve a goal may be worth the effort instead of feeling disappointed or sadness.
- Children who are not taught delayed gratification (a delay in getting what is desired until appropriate time in life), often have a harder time developing internal happiness (positive self-esteem) and often learn that happiness in life comes with the pursuit of receiving one material item after another with little value placed on achievement or earning the item.
Children who learn early on in life that their parents are not their “friend” and have a different, more valuable role in their life often feel safer in their environment and more secure with them self.
