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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:)

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  • yes let them be bored so they can learn to entertain themselves and even try new things

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  • Amen and amen :)

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  • 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

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  • Children get to be creative when bored – this is where great ideas begin.


    • Gratitude is important throughout life.

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  • Yes to all of these, especially number 1.

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  • To some extent – some of these things take a long time to properly take hold.

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  • He does make some good points. Miss 3 has good manners and we are working hard to keep it this way

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  • 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.

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  • Interesting views and most interesting that this teacher doesn’t have kids of his own! Parenting and teaching are not the same.

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  • I agree with some points, not with others.

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  • 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.

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  • He makes some interesting points. I totally agree with teaching children to share and have good social skills before starting school.

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  • 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

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  • 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.

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  • It is a different generation but he has a point!

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