17 Stories About Parents Who Have Honed Their Craft When It Comes to Raising Children

Every parent has surely faced the choice to either hold their ground or cut some slack, to tell their kids off for their mistakes or to try and explain something to them. The parents from this compilation were even prepared for difficult situations like when their kids wanted to leave home or were involved in petty theft.

We at Bright Side are sure that some of these stories are worth checking out. And the bonus at the end of the article proves that even kids who aren’t very well-behaved can make their parents proud.

• My friend tried to teach his kids to drink goat milk. But he had no luck because the kids said it smelled like a goat. So, he decided to buy supermarket milk, pour it out of the bottle, and pour the milk from the goats into it. The sons were happy that the father gave in and they kept saying, “This is great! It’s real and tasty.” They are 40 years old now and they are still happy they made their father change his mind. © Alina Rodionova / Facebook

• We were in the car somewhere. I must have been 6-7 years old. My uncle had lost his job and was working as a snowplow driver to earn money while looking for a new job. I made some off-handed insult or joke about him. My father put his hand on my shoulder and very seriously said, “Never, and I mean never, put another man down for doing honest work.” Stuck with me, and I believe made me a better person. © Chimie45 / Reddit

• When my wife and I were going to have a second child, we were worried because the age difference between the kids would be 8 years. So, the oldest kid wanted to drink the same bottle as the baby, eat the same baby food. He wanted me to play with him the same way as I did with the baby. But then, it stopped. There was no jealousy, because he could get whatever the baby got. © Kaa1980 / Pikabu

• I was probably 7 years old and was terrified of talking to strangers. I was basically the definition of a shy, introverted kid. One day I was at McDonald’s with my family and I wanted some ketchup for my fries. We didn’t have any at our table, so someone would have to ask the cashier for some ketchup packets. My father decided right then and there that it was time to get me out of my shell.
  Him: “You can get the ketchup yourself.”
  Me: (nervously) “Won’t you get it for me?”
  Him: “No, you can handle it. Go ahead and bring back enough for everyone.”
  Heart racing, I slowly stepped up to the counter. The girl behind the register smiled politely and asked, “May I help you?” In my shyest, quietest voice, I asked, “Can I have a handful of ketchup please?” Her: “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. Could you say it one more time?” I took a deep breath and tried again, with all the false confidence I could muster. “Can I have a handful of ketchup please?” She just politely said, “Sure!” And handed me a bunch of ketchup packets. I proudly walked back to our table, holding back the giant smile that was trying to appear on my face, holding the ketchup packets in front of me as if I were carrying the holy grail. I will always have some degree of nervousness when it comes to meeting new people. But I can push past it as an adult by thinking to myself, “This will be just like asking for ketchup.” © Stephen Graham / Quora

• My mom taught me how to be honest with the truth no matter how hard it might be. I remember I was around 8 years old. I really liked the flowers from our neighbor’s garden and I picked this yellow rose from a branch and was content with my treasure for a while. I ended up sharing my excitement with my mom. She said it was beautiful but then said, “That’s a beautiful rose, but did you ask the neighbors before taking their flower? You need to apologize for trespassing in their garden and for taking this flower without their permission.” With my disagreement suppressed, I went over to my neighbors’ apartment. I knocked on the door with my right hand, holding the rose in my left. The lady opened the door. I told her I lived upstairs and that I had taken her rose. I wanted to run away. I gave her the rose. “Here,” she said approaching me with her right hand toward me. “You can have it.” My mom smiled and asked, “How do you like this rose now?” “It feels much more beautiful.” I answered. © Atish Dixit / Quora

• We had horses growing up. The stalls were cleaned every day and the manure was put into a pile at the end of the pasture. I got caught cursing in 8th grade. Dad said, if you’re going to let this stink come out of your mouth, you can go move stink around. I spent 3 days moving the manure pile from one side of the pasture to the other and back to its original spot. Dad always says the punishment should fit the crime and I try to stick with that with my own child now. © slatetastic / Reddit

• It was a rainy day and I was waiting for a train. There were puddles that were so beautiful I was sure kids would want to play in them. I saw a mother with a 3-year-old kid. He saw the biggest puddle there and asked his mom if he could play in it. She said, “Let’s step to the side.” I thought that was it — she would say something to the kid and deprive him of his happiness. But instead, she took rubber boots out of her bag, gave them to the boy and he went to the puddle to walk around in it. His legs stayed dry and he was happy. © Lunarfa / Pikabu

• My friend’s daughter really wanted a dog. She swore she would take good care of a pet. Anyway, she got a dog. Of course, she was happy for just a few weeks, and then she started asking her mom and dad to walk with the dog. But they were adamant — they didn’t even come close to the dog. So, the dog pooed in the daughter’s room and then peed next to her backpack. The girl was really angry, but then she started walking with the dog regularly. © barakuda1984 / Pikabu

• In 4th grade, my son wanted to leave home and he even wrote a farewell letter. I told him, “I’m not going to argue with you but I recommend you to write a list of things you’re going to take.” He was really happy that evening, he hoped for an adventure. It turned out he was going to eat at the school cafeteria. So, at 11 PM, I told my son to take a pillow and a blanket, go spend the night wherever he wanted, and that then he’d figure out what else he needed. He left. My wife was really scared, and she wanted to go get him back, but I stopped her. I knew what it was like to sleep in the cold with all the noises around. He came back after 3 hours. He was a little bit scared and asked if he could live with us for a bit longer. © KotM / Pikabu

• When my little girl was 3 or 4, she was terrified of blood. Whenever she got even a small scratch, she got really scared. Not because it hurt, but because she saw the blood. Once, I cut my finger. I stained her with my blood and asked her, “Oh, where did you get this from?” She saw the blood and got scared. I asked, “Does it hurt?” She said it did. I convinced her to go and wash the blood off. When she looked at her arm, she didn’t see any cuts or scratches. She said it didn’t hurt anymore. I showed her my finger and told her it was my blood. She’s not scared of blood anymore. © Irena / Facebook

• When I was preparing for high school I sucked at writing, particularly long response/essay questions. To mediate this my dad spent a week having me write a different essay every day about the most simple and mundane tasks. The one that really sticks out in my mind was the first one, “How to put a football away.” By doing this, though it seemed inhumane at the time, I learned how to expand a simple thought into highly descriptive details and became a great writer throughout the rest of my school career. © AverageJoes24 / Reddit

• Every morning when my son is asleep, my husband makes him a sandwich. Once, my son woke up in a bad mood and started crying. He said he wouldn’t eat the sandwich because it was very stale. But I said that his dad had made toast for him today — that’s why the bread was that hard. He smiled, ate it, and said it was the most delicious thing he’d ever eaten. © Katya Aksyonova / Facebook

• In her childhood, my daughter wasn’t a very good eater so I’d give her a lot of food on a big plate. Of course, she’d argue and say she wasn’t going to eat that much. I told her, “Okay, eat half.” She agreed happily, split the portion in half, and ate it. She’d end up eating just enough every time. © Elena Akodus / Facebook

• My parents sent me to their room. My room had a full-size color TV with cable, video games, and all my stuff. Their room had a bed and a tiny black and white TV with an antenna that only got one channel. Most boring night ever. © Maybesometimes69 / Reddit

• I remember when I was 14-15, I took a marker and wrote my poems all over the walls in my room. I also drew an angel. On one of the walls, my friends wrote things: I was proud. My mom was terrified when she saw this “masterpiece.” But my dad protected me and said, “It’s her room, let her do whatever she wants.” A little while later, I realized my room looked terrible. And my dad helped me do renovations. I even painted the furniture myself. Now, I’m an adult, I still live in that room, and I love it. © Happygerl / Pikabu

Bonus

I punished my oldest son today. He’d made a curse word with cubes. He knew the word was bad but he still made it. I don’t usually punish my kids, but this time I told him to make up 20 good words starting with the same letter. His little sister sat down next to him. I asked her, “Did you make a bad word, too?” She said she didn’t. “Then why are you sitting here?” She said, “I helped him look for the cubes.” © Sibirskix / Pikabu

Do you have any parenting tricks? How do you handle bad behavior?