Parenting

I visit a lot of families in my work and spend time with them in their homes quite often. I find it quite strange how when I'm there in their home and their child(ren) misbehave(s), very often they'll act as if they never misbehave and that they're only doing it to show off in front of me, as well as just lightly telling their child(ren) off, even when the behaviour becomes persistent. Now there may well be an element of this showing off but I'm sure they misbehave when I'm not there too, right? Are they just scared or embarassed to parent around other people?

Really I shouldn't say much cos I'm sure parenting is a very big and tough responsibility and I don't have any experience of parenting. and I'm not saying that this is true of all parents either, but it is true of some of the families I work with. However I have to say it was somewhat refreshing yesterday when I was with a mother. One of her kids was persistently interrupting and she stood up and fixed the situation, explaining that it wasn't the right time to be interrupting and so on: effectively nipping it in the bud.

I would hope that one day when I'm a parent that I won't be afraid to discipline my children when they need it, also to not be ashamed of doing it in front of others and not to pretend that they are perfectly well behaved. I pray that I'm learning from all this in preparation for being a parent myself someday.