A mother says it’s her job as a parent to be her kids’ “cheerleader” and refuses to be their friend or a “helicopter parent” as it won’t teach them to be resilient.
Meredith Masony, 43, from Jacksonville, Florida, doesn’t put a label on her parenting style and treats all of her children—aged 13, 15, and 17—differently. She believes parents shouldn’t become a child’s playmate.
“The last thing I want is to be a child’s friend. I’m a parent,“ she said. ”I make sure they are safe. I’m there to help.
“I can’t be friends with a 16-year-old. We have nothing in common. When these parents become best friends with their kid, I think, ‘Are you really sure?’ Your best friend is someone you can share all that you are going through.”
The mom-of-three has always wanted to take a back seat and “sittervise” her children so they can play independently and “use their imagination.”
Sittervising is a new trend in which parents supervise their children from a seated position while they play—and while Ms. Masony says it has been around for decades, she agrees with the principles.
“This new term sittervising—I just call it parenting. Parents who dote on their kids. They will grow up with a feeling of entitlement. My job as a mum is to be that cheerleader,” she said.
Ms. Masony takes a lot of her parenting style from her childhood.
“[G]rowing up in the way we did in the ‘80s, your parents were not there,” she said. “You weren’t making your parents play with you. We were out roaming.
“You can’t parent like you did in the ‘80s. But there are quite a lot of strong parenting principles to give kids the freedom to go out and do things. For me personally, my job as a parent is to let them use their imagination and play.”
Although her children are now older, Ms. Masony always let her children play independently rather than getting involved. She worries about kids who are parented by a helicopter parent, a style of parenting where parents are highly involved in a child’s life and play.
She said: “Parents who want to helicopter—it’s not going to teach them how to be resilient or get a job done.
“You have to raise them to be self-sufficient. If you give them everything they want, they are going to have obstacles in the future.”
Ms. Masony says she parents her three children differently.
“You treat your kids differently,” she said. “They are three different people. You can’t treat them the same.
“My first child potty-trained himself. My second child—she turned my life upside down. My youngest son—he was even more different—my little chameleon. Nothing about parenting is one size fits all.”
The proud mom has been sharing comical and relatable videos about parenting for the last 10 years.
“Trends make me laugh when they have been going on 50-plus years,” she said. “Motherhood is very isolating and lonely. That’s why I started this.
“We’re doing the hardest thing on the planet.”
