Parental Guidance

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Thankx to Nuffnang we got the opportunity to catch this comedy Parental Guidance at e@Curve recently. 

When his daughter goes away for work, a grandfather (Billy Crystal) finds himself having to take care of his three grandkids using 21st century methods — though he soon resorts to an old-school style of parenting.

When I watched this movie, I kind of like relate to Alice but I’m sure I’m not that bad-lah. At least I let Ethan play dirt in the playground and oh, I’m not working so urm, I’m nothing like Alice then! @_@ But when Alice laid out her approach to parenting, which includes making them feel valued with certain language choices, it just slaps me right in the face. 

“There’s a certain way we talk to our kids. For instance, where you would say, ‘no’ we would say, ‘consider the consequences’ or where you would say, ‘don’t’ we would say, ‘maybe you should try this.’ See that way the child sees that he has value, he has worth, he’s heard.”

But when her kids became uncontrollable, Artie puts his feet down and communicated the old school way using his approach, his choice of language which works wonders obviously -.-

And when Alice is upset that Diane always sides with Artie, Diane proves a point:

Alice: “My father doesn’t listen!”
Diane: “How is this Artie’s fault?”
Alice: “You always take his side.”
Diane: “And for good reason, because after your kids grow up, your husband is the one who stays.”

Many scenes hits a nail in the head for me and I kinda realized that while I think I’m doing a great job parenting Ethan, what makes me think that MY parents weren’t doing a good enough job with me? If they can raise me to be who I am today, why am I using the entire opposite approach on Ethan? Sometimes, old school is COOL! But sometimes, with time comes change. The answer here is to find the balance of old and new..