Nagging your children. Nit-picking at them. These all amount to the same thing – fault-finding and criticism. Here are 6 reasons why parents should stop nagging:
Proverbs 18:21, The Passion Translation, reminds us of the importance of our words: “Your words are so powerful that they will kill or give life”. The Word of God admonishes us to speak words of life, especially over and to our children.
It makes children feel incompetent. I love this quote from American author and stress expert Lori Lite: “Look for teaching moments instead of criticizing moments.”
It weakens the bond between parent and child because the child begins to tune out.
According to Melanie Greenberg, psychologist and parenting expert, “When parents go on and on, kids tune them out. Researchers have shown that the human brain can keep only four 'chunks' of information or unique ideas in short-term (active) memory at once. This amounts to about 30 seconds or one or two sentences of speaking.”
It emphasizes the negative.
It can lead to arguments rather than resolutions.
It is not a long-term solution.
Next week’s blog post will have suggestions as to how parents can stop or at least, limit nagging.
This blog post was based generally on the online article:
https://wehavekids.com/parenting/Why-Do-We-Nag-Our-Children-and-How-Do-We-Stop