Inside My Wardrobe

Hand on heart, the very first time either of my kids ever said no to me was not until they were in their teens, it was so foreign to me that I didn’t quite know how to respond! You see I had pretty much raised them without the word “no” in our vocabulary. I don’t like it, there are many alternatives to instruct our children in ways that allow them to think for themselves. “No” is definite and it is a door closer, and I want to keep that door between me and my kids open, always.   This all came about after spending a number of years in my 20s living in Holland. They are known to be a very liberal culture yet I observed that their children and more importantly their young adults were surprisingly balanced with alcoholism and teenage pregnancy not being an issue in the slightest. It dawned on me that with the lack of “no” in their lives, they had the freedom to become young adults who knew who they were, who had the ability to make their own informed choices and the will to walk away when necessary. I also obse