Loading tweets...Hypocrite
I’m taking classes for a Masters in Education to get a job teaching High School Math in California. Every week I meet with members of a group to work on group projects and papers. Yesterday, I don’t know exactly how, we got on the topic of raising our own children. One of the members of my group talked about her upbringing and how she used to catch her parents being hypocritical. She criticized her parents for telling her not to do things when she knew for a fact that they had done the exact same things at one time in their lives.
“People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones!” she proclaimed.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” says I. “I have nooooooo problem being a hypocrite with my kids. That’s my job, I’m a Dad!”
They all stopped everything they were doing, shocked, and waited for me to expand on what I had just said. I told them that people use the term wrong. It applies when you are presently telling them not to do something that you are still doing yourself. A hypocrite is a person whose actions belie stated beliefs. If I had done something stupid in the past I am certainly going to try and prevent my kids from repeating my same mistakes.
“If I attempted suicide as a youth, is it hypocritical to tell my kids that suicide is bad? Of course not, ” I said.
Why do people care if their kids are mad at them anyway? A parent’s job is to be a parent! If my kids think I’m a hypocrite or a jerk well, toooooooooooooo bad! It’s my responsibility that they make it to adulthood in one piece.
After they leave my care I can’t really stop them from making their own mistakes but while they’re in MY care, I can try and stop them from making MY mistakes.
