Parenting PSA

Just a little PSA announcement tonight on a couple of word definitions. 

Natural consequences - The direct result of making a poor decision. Leave your coat at home? You'll be cold. Procrastinate about writing a paper? You might not have time to finish it. Don't fill up the gas tank soon enough? You'll run out of gas.

Imposed consequences - An unrelated punishment for not following rules. Most of the time have little to do with the offense. They don't actually work and definitely hinder you from being on your child's team. They often indicate that the rules are more important than the relationship with the child.

This can be a difficult distinction to wrap ones head around. Especially since so many parenting resources would say the exact opposite... Enforcing rules = good parenting. It took me years to tease apart and undo this type of thinking which is probably why I might sound like a broken record.