A Toxic Social Media Trend That Must Stop

There’s a growing trend on social media where parents make jokes about disrespecting or demeaning their children. Even more demeaning, parents will sometimes feature the child in the video or post that mocks them – all for likes and laughs on the internet. Emotional abuse includes behavior that belittles, insults or humiliates: and that’s exactly what this trend does. Emotional abuse is *not* normal and should never be considered a joke. Even if the parents think their child does not know what they are doing, kids are very smart and intuitive and *do* pick up on the negative attitudes of their parents.
Children deserve profound love and respect. As parents, we may get stressed and frustrated, that is normal, but we should allow the challenges of parenting to inspire us love and sacrifice for our kids *more,* not less. No parent is perfect but let’s strive towards love as the model, never disrespect or unkindness. Remember: how we treat our kids is how we model appropriate behavior for them to treat others. By loving our children well, and apologizing for when we do make mistakes, we show our children what it is to be loved well and prepare them to love others well, for the rest of their lives.