Welcome to "Hey, Mom and Dad"—a weekly feature in which we ask our Facebook fans to share their views on parenting. Every week, we get the conversation started by taking a look back at a question we asked parents the week before on Patch Facebook pages from around the area.
By this point, most of us have realized that parenting is much harder and more complicated than it may have seemed when we were children. There are countless schools of thought on parenting, everyone has their own opinions and the list of do's and don't's grows by the minute.
That leads us to this week's question:
What's the best parenting practice or piece of advice that you picked up from your own mom and dad?
Take a look at what people had to say and join the conversation in the comments section.
Linda Saflarski Walsh: Make sure to enforce family time. They may not like it now but will appreciate & value it later. The older kids of ours are already showing signs of this now. — Batavia Patch Facebook
Sue Shepard: I learned that you must agree or at least appear to agree on issues. Don't let the kids play you against each other. — Elmhurst Patch Facebook
Meg Burns Lietz: My husband and I discuss this a lot now that our oldest in entering his teen years (we still have toddlers). Aside from being loving supportive parents, good role models etc, we feel one of the best life lessons we can teach all of our children is how to persevere. We feel it's important to let our children try new things and allow them to fail. Failure is a part of life. Learning how to cope, stay positive and overcome life's obstacles is something everyone should learn. Our parents never jumped in to solve our problems in school, run to our aid when we lost a job or offer for us to move back in to their house when we had no money in the bank. Not everyone will have the perfect job, family or life but learning how to be grateful for what you have and persevere through difficult times will help you see the blessing we all have on a daily basis. — Geneva Patch Facebook
Stephanie Yurgen: To research vaccinations before just blindly getting them for your kids without knowing what is in them! — Naperville Patch Facebook
Nicole Rita: My mother was big on being honest, her thing was "always tell me the truth, if you're in trouble, i can help, if you lie to me, your in DEEP" ... AND treat others as you want to be treated; those were her top 2. — St. Charles Patch Facebook
Sue Stozek Mayeda: To actually let them know you love them! — Wheaton Patch Facebook
