Lecturing Doesn't work!
16 Dec 2025 · 1 min
0:40
When your kid asks about a middle finger, don't lecture. Ask what they think it means, say it's a bad word, confirm they won't use it. Lecturing shuts them down and makes them hide things next time.
When your kid asks about a middle finger, don't lecture. Ask what they think it means, say it's a bad word, confirm they won't use it. Lecturing shuts them down and makes them hide things next time.
So if my child comes and says, Mama, you know, this friend of mine, this boy showed me the middle finger. You listen and you say, what does that mean? What do you say? I don't know what it means. It's a bad word. It's okay. Would you like to use this bad word? No, Mama, I would not like to use it. All right, then just ignore it. But how do you not engage in this whole lecture at that point that, you know, this is terrible and you kids should not be using this kind of language or these kind of gestures at this age? Because it doesn't work. Lecture. Lecturing doesn't work. It shuts down the child, and it is teaching the child, next time don't tell anything to Mama because she will start with a lecture and it's forgotten. I think this conversation is relevant for my parents also to watch today. I think that's the best part, literally.
