15+ Stories That Might Inspire You on Your Parenting Journey

Upbringing methods are different in every family. Some parents talk children into something, others show something with their own examples. And it doesn’t matter how you teach children — what matters the most is that they grow up to be good people.

We at Bright Side have found the examples of parents we respect and we want to share them with you. There’s a lot people can learn from these guys.

• I saw a young family: a mother, a father, a 9-year-old boy, and a younger girl. The boy runs, quickly throws a bag into a trash can. The bag flies over the can, lands on the ground, and all the trash gets spread around. The mother got into the car calmly and the children followed her. About 20 seconds later, the car door opens, the boy gets out, goes up to the bag, and throws it into the can. He looks back at his mother, she says something to him, and he starts to collect all the trash. He throws it all away and goes back to the car. The end. © Zhuchelovo / Pikabu

• My daughter was telling me about an event at her school. A girl in her class drew an apple, and when she was done, said out loud: “This drawing is garbage, utterly terrible!” My daughter was confused: “But, mom, her apple looked so cool! It wasn’t terrible at all!” This story was another opportunity for me as a mom to remind my daughter of something we spoke about since she was a toddler. It is something really simple but deeply beautiful and true, something we forget to remind ourselves of, and almost never teach our children. Whenever my children do something good, accomplish any little progress or victory, I remind them to congratulate themselves. I jokingly say: “Don’t forget to give yourself a high-five!” When my children fail at something, make a mistake, or are disappointed about something they didn’t do well, I encourage them to be kind and loving to themselves, and to continue on their way, accepting occasional defeat as a normal part of life. © Iva Izabela Miholic / Quora

“Yesterday, my daughter suggested that we collect the trash in the nearest forest. Today, we’ve collected 2 full bags of trash in less than an hour. Next time, we’ll get bigger bags.”

• This isn’t amazing, but it was cute. I was at work (waitress) a couple of weeks ago and one of my tables had a cute little 3-year-old girl. She had a little pack of stickers, and I said, “Oh, cool stickers!” She smiled and took one off to hand to me. I told her that it was okay, she could keep it, but she just held it out to me. Her mom leaned over and said, “She’s learning about sharing, so if you take it, that would help us.” So I took it and said thank you and both little girl and mom seemed very pleased. Active teaching. © LaMalintzin / Reddit

• Every time I have problems in my life, my dad tells me, “There’s no need to worry. Because the problems will go away, but the damage to your nervous system will already be done.” Now, I take things very easily and my friends are jealous of this. I’m really thankful to my father. © “Palata № 6” / VK

• My brother left his daughter at our place and she is a little bit spoiled, constantly asking someone to bring her some water or give her a toy. When she asked me for something again, I said, “Do you have arms and legs? Use them to get what you need.” She took a moment to think, and then went to get some water for herself. She never asked me for anything at all, she did everything by herself. My brother later asked me if he could bring her to me more often — I had a positive influence on her. © LRAss / Pikabu

• My friend’s 11-year-old son comes running up to us, visibly upset with simmering anger, verging on tears. He blurts out, “Mom, (**insert name of sibling**) is being really mean to me, and will not share. She won’t let me get on the computer!!” My friend calmly turns to her son, looks him in the eye, and evenly states, “Well you know the 3 choices: 1. Do you want to choose to solve this on your own? 2. Do you want to choose to have me come over and intervene? or 3. Do you want to choose to walk away?” And with that, her son walks off not totally happy, but resolved with his decision on how to handle this stressful situation. With those 3 clear and parent-directed choices, my friend has told her son he has some power over this situation, she has empowered him to figure out what he wants to do, and she has given him tools to fix or avoid further antagonizing the situation with his sister. © Carla Attenborough / Quora

• My kid is 9 and he goes to school and all of his other classes by himself. His teachers often call me to tell me that my child is too small to travel to school alone. In winter, my kid wanted to live at a sports camp in a tent for one month. I let him but people criticized my decision. I think that I’m raising a future man and my job is to raise a loving and strong person, someone who can protect himself and his family. © greencloudlet / Livejournal

• I used to work with a guy who had 2 kids and he would make them work to earn money for things they wanted. For example, if his 12-year-old son wanted an Xbox for his birthday the guy would make a deal with him. He would give the kid half the money for the Xbox then they would devise a bunch of “jobs” the kid could do, working at minimum wage, to earn the rest. So the kid would paint the storage shed and clean out the attic, stuff like that. The kid learned a sense of accomplishment and cared more for his stuff because he had to work for it and the dad got to teach his kid about earning his way in the world. © kane55 / Quora

“Boys, 12-year-old Victor and his 10-year-old friend Andrew wanted to help with the tiles. They worked the entire day with us. There are kids that really care about the life of their area, and they want to live in the real world instead of on their phones. They were raised right. And we, as adults, should encourage them instead of pushing them away and saying, “Go away.”

• I don’t even remember why, but I had an argument with my mom and I was very upset with tears on my eyes. I told her I was leaving home. I was crying and packing my stuff into my dad’s leather bag. When I was at the door, I suddenly realized that I had nowhere to go and it was almost dinner time. At that moment, my mom was passing by and I asked her, “Mom, do you think I have to leave you now or can I still stay for a little while?” She said I could stay home. So, I was happy and went to unpack my bag. © Leeo43 / Pikabu

• My son is 14 years old. He doesn’t like any cultural events. Museums, theaters, exhibitions — nothing. My husband and I decided to stop ruining our weekends with his sad face and enjoy the experience ourselves. We decided to choose the things we would like to see and left our kid at home. Of course, when we came back home, we were really impressed and happy and kept talking about what we saw. A month later, our son wanted to come with us. And then, he even started looking for events by himself and visiting them with his friends. © juliafeofanova / Livejournal

• On the first day of summer break, I went up to my dad and asked him to buy me a new bike. He said, “Go and buy it yourself. I don’t have the money for that.”
  That’s where the conversation ended. The next morning, I realized my dad wanted to help me in a different way. We had breakfast at 6 a.m., got on a full bus, and went to the factory he worked at. He found me a job where I worked from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. At noon, when my classmates were just getting up and going for a walk, I was just getting back from work. A month later, I got my first paycheck. My dad and I went to the store and bought a bike. I even had some money left over. It was really special to buy it with my own money. My life turned around and my childhood ended. My next dream was a music player and good headphones. © Shmulcke / Pikabu

• Some teenagers outside were being very loud and they were using bad words. I was annoyed, so I wanted to yell at them through the window. But then I stopped. I was raised by professional teachers. I got dressed, went outside, and told them, “Guys, would you please not use those bad words? We’d like to use them too, but we’re polite, so we don’t.” They apologized and stopped. © Kaurova / Pikabu

• My kids get points for doing just about everything. Reading, knitting, making bracelets, school work, coming out of their rooms ready, raking leaves, making their own meals, making somebody else’s meals, laundry, cleaning the house (sweeping, mopping, bathrooms). Those points are then used for doing the stuff they want. Watching TV, buying books (which they will then read for points!), buying music, cursing, throwing tantrums, insulting siblings, nagging, and whining. They develop a good sense of budgeting, they want to help out with everything, they behave better, and they become rather creative, thinking about what other things can give them points. The trick is to give points for creative stuff, not just ugly labor. They get points for crafts, arts, and board games (which also makes them cooperate, since they can’t play by themselves). You want them to make their points doing things they enjoy doing, not things you don’t want to do yourself. © Daniel Montano / Quora

• If my son has an argument with someone, I won’t intervene — he has to deal with that himself. I let him climb trees, fences, run fast, pet animals, ride a bike, and swim deep. I will swim next to him but I won’t stop him from swimming if he thinks he can do it. Many moms think I’m irresponsible, but my kid’s health and development are extremely important. The more we protect our kids, the more harm we do. We often tell them, “Don’t! Don’t go! Don’t argue.” In the end, they stop thinking, they get used to following orders. I respect my son and his choices. He’s 10 years old and I think he is a person that has the right to his own opinion. © elina_ellis / Livejournal

• In the evenings, we don’t use our phones. They are in a “magic box.” It was my idea and the entire family puts away their phones. However, the idea is one thing and conversion of it to real life and practice is something completely different. Real life has to have precedence over any virtual knock at our door. Time with our children, especially during the evenings, is special and sacred, and no one and nothing should have easy access to it. We silence the phones, and put them in this special box, with the screens facing away from us. We do not touch our phones, until our children are asleep. We get rid of them, and fully dedicate our time to our children. We might play, draw, dance, talk, sing, and goof around. We eat dinner and watch a cartoon. We read, explore, and discover the wonderful worlds in books and stories we create together. Get yourself a box like this. It’s worth it. © Paul Bartlett / Quora

“This photo shows a small snapshot of a normal evening. My daughter was drawing (some Easter — egg — a bunny idea she had today), and there’s the ‘magic box’ for our cell phones.”

• I went to my sister’s place and had to look after my 6-year-old nephew. He’s pretty spoiled and he kept asking me to bring him something or do something. I was tired after 20 minutes. And then I decided to teach him a little. We cleaned the place, collected the toys, and I set a schedule — we did the same thing every day. The kid had been transformed. Several years later, I found out that every time he misbehaved, they reminded him of me and then he would behave again. Now, he’s a grown-up man, has 2 kids, and he’s doing great. © AleksBoev / Pikabu

• One of the things my husband complains about to my daughter is her messy room. And I tell him it’s pointless to tell her that, because our bedroom is the same. Now, my daughter and I have an experiment — every day, she and I clean up our rooms. When I watch her, I realize that many of the bad qualities I see in her, she got from me or she got because I didn’t pay enough attention to her. © marionnellita / Livejournal

• When I was pregnant with my oldest son, I was reading through some old Reader’s Digest magazines and came across one of those cute, funny stories used as a place-filler at the end of an article. “We bought a new kitten. The first day we had her at home, she started sharpening her claws on the side of the couch—as kittens do—so my dad picked her up and put her outside. 15 years later, she still claws the side of the couch every time she wants to go out.” This story is my guiding beacon as a parent. Every moment of every day, you are teaching your children something. With every single thing you say, do, or don’t do, you are teaching your children what they should say, do, and not do. The trick, as a parent, is not to teach your children the right things; the trick is to know what you’re teaching them. If your children overhear you telling your friend how much you hate Susan’s new haircut, and then they hear you telling Susan you love her hair, you might think you’re teaching them the value of being kind to people, even if it involves a little white lie. But what you may actually be teaching your children is that: It’s okay to talk about people behind their back. If you tell your child to clean up his/her room, and when they ask why, you yell: “Because I’m your mother and I said to do it!” But what you may actually be teaching your children is that: It’s okay to yell at people if they don’t do what you say. Children are our reflections. Don’t try to change them. Change yourself. © Jo Eberhardt / Quora

• I was outside and I heard a mother talking to her daughter:
  — Let’s buy a book.
  — But I want chocolate!
  — What’s the point of chocolate? You eat it and it’s gone, but a book can last for much longer.
  The kid agreed. © garrysmodbest / Pikabu

Do you or your parents have some special tricks to share with other parents?