In the modern, mollycoddled world of parenting, the word “no” has gone the way of phrases such as “Do that again, and I’ll smack you” and “Don’t make me hurt the wooden spoon with your backside.”

But parenting expert Janet Cater says not saying no is a big no-no.

“This idea that it’s not okay to say no to your child seems to have snuck in with the no-smacking thing,” Mrs Cater says.

“It’s this new trend that says we have to negotiate with children and give them choices.

“Smacking’s not okay, but we seem to have thrown out ‘no’ as well – which is wrong, because children still need to be told no…

“A lot of parents let their children set the boundaries and do what they want. The theory is that if you say no to them all the time, they’ll just start saying no back – and that’s true to an extent; you can overdo it.

“But children need boundaries, and if they don’t get them they will act out and misbehave.” …

Ian Dalton, executive director of the Australian Parents Council, says he is aware of the just-don’t-say-no trend.

“Once you start making rules around this kind of language, it gets a bit nonsensical,” he says.

“We end up in a situation where we have paralysis by overanalysis, because there are just too many experts out there trying to explain the technical aspects of parenting.

“In an ideal world, people might speak in particular ways, but we would all end up sounding like robots.

“If we don’t say no to our children, they’re eventually going to get into situations where someone will say no to them – and what are they going to do then?” …

Source: NEWS.com.au, Australia
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22310037-2,00.html