Rule 5: Do Not Let Your Children Do Anything That Makes You Dislike Them

12 Rules For Life Book Summary (Jordan B. Peterson)

Anecdote #1

“Recently I watched a three-year-old boy trail his mother and father slowly through a crowded airport. He was screaming violently at five-second intervals, and more importantly, he was doing it voluntarily. As a parent, I could tell from the tone, it was irritating his parents and hundreds of other people to gain attention. Maybe he needed something but that was no way to get it and his parents should have let him know that. Thirty seconds of carefully directed problem-solving would’ve brought the shameful episode to a halt.”

Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.

Anecdote #2

“I’ve also watched a couple unable or unwilling to say no to their two-year-old, obliged to follow closely behind him every way he went, every moment of what was supposed to be an enjoyable social visit, because he misbehaved so badly when not micromanaged that he could not be given a second of genuine freedom without risk. The desire of his parents to let their child act without correction on every impulse perversely produced precisely the opposite effect. They deprived him instead of every opportunity to engage in independent action, because they did not dare to teach him what “No” means. He had no conception of the reasonable limits…