Teacher’s message to parents about spoiling kids goes viral

Jonas Harrysson has been a teacher for 16 years. During this time, he’s noticed a change in the way parents are raising their children. He begs parents to “Please stop spoiling and servicing your children. It’s not dangerous for them to be bored sometimes.”

The teacher from Sweden expressed his thoughts in a Facebook post last year. He highlighted three major areas he’d like to see parents change the way they raise their kids. The post has since been shared by 16,600 people and liked over 14,000.

He writes…

I have worked with kids for almost 16 years and there are several things that I’ve noticed children getting worse and worse at.

No.1. Children find it very difficult to be bored! There constantly needs to be something going on.
Please stop spoiling and servicing your children. It’s not dangerous for them to be bored sometimes.

No 2. I’ve met many parents who are soooo proud that their kids can read and count before starting preschool.
Well, I hate to break it to you, but reading and counting, they’ll learn to do soon enough. Teach them instead to play, to be a good friend, and to share.

My third point is that many children find it difficult to show gratitude, both to other kids and towards adults. Can they get an “another one” is unfortunately often a first question – and “we only get one!?” is a common complaint I hear.

What happened to PLEASE!? And thanks for dinner, and thanks for the ride, and so on?

I have no children at the moment, but if I do sometime in the future I plan to teach them to play, to be good friends, to show gratitude and to be bored from time to time. Once they’ve learned those things, then I’ll teach them to read and count:)

Do you agree?

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17 Comments

- - mom94125 said
  - 02 Sep 2016
    3:52 pm
yes let them be bored so they can learn to entertain themselves and even try new things

- - mom134803 said
  - 11 Jul 2016
    12:15 pm
Amen and amen 🙂

- - mom163231 said
  - 07 Jul 2016
    10:17 pm
i want to do all that… and trying to do it and it works somewhat… my son who is 2 years old says please and thank you but when he is in nasty mood don’t expect anything

- - mom93821 said
  - 29 Jun 2016
    7:36 pm
Children get to be creative when bored – this is where great ideas begin.
- mom93821 replied
  
  30 Jun 2016 , 6:25 am
  Gratitude is important throughout life.
- - mom19782016 said
  - 22 Jun 2016
    9:56 pm
Yes to all of these, especially number 1.

- - BellaB said
  - 28 May 2016
    12:57 pm
To some extent – some of these things take a long time to properly take hold.

- - mum4107 said
  - 18 May 2016
    6:35 am
He does make some good points. Miss 3 has good manners and we are working hard to keep it this way

- - june11 said
  - 17 May 2016
    9:43 pm
What happened to “thank you”? 3 year old is very good and even apologises if she drops or spills something. 8 year old has to be reminded and then sometimes says it sarcastically. If the elder one tells me she is bored we tell to find something to do to entertain herself.

- - mom165081 said
  - 17 May 2016
    9:16 pm
Interesting views and most interesting that this teacher doesn’t have kids of his own! Parenting and teaching are not the same.

- - sharna_booth_weinrowski said
  - 17 May 2016
    8:07 pm
I agree with some points, not with others.

- - mom160421 said
  - 17 May 2016
    6:47 pm
I agree with all his points, especially the last one. Gratitude is so important throughout life – it keeps you happy. And manners – they will definitely take you far.

- - Nas01 said
  - 17 May 2016
    3:09 pm
He makes some interesting points. I totally agree with teaching children to share and have good social skills before starting school.

- - pakeko said
  - 17 May 2016
    2:01 pm
As someone that works with children I could not agree more, the only thing I would add is children are not angels all the time, and learning to I am sorry is something not to be ashamed off

- - Tinarh said
  - 17 May 2016
    1:53 pm
Manners, or the lack thereof, is one of my main complaints. My 6yr old has whatever he asked for denied if he doesnt use manners. He gets maybe 1 or 2 reminders during the day and after that he misses out.

- - mom112217 said
  - 17 May 2016
    1:04 pm
It is a different generation but he has a point!

- - mom81879 said
  - 17 May 2016
    12:28 pm
I always felt lacking as a parent if my kids were ever bored, particularly through school holidays, so I tried to do lots of things with them. I do think they know how to show gratitude and be grateful for things