Badly behaved child

[Velvetee]

Earlier today my partner and I took his mother out for her birthday lunch. His younger brother, partner and their two children also came along. The restaurant was quite an austere, "oldy worldy" type place and we were the only table occupied.

His brother's older daughter from a previous relationship is 12 and a very pleasant, well behaved young lady, but the younger child, who he has with his current partner, has to be the most hyper active, rudest brat I've ever encountered and I couldn't believe how her parents just let her behave the way they did.

She is 5 and cannot sit still for a minute. She was dashing around the restaurant, answering her parents back, being cheeky and had the table manners of a pig. Her parents seemingly find her behaviour quaint and say she is "lively" because she's very advanced for her age.

Would her behaviour really be down to her being "advanced for her age", therefore more prone to boredom and needing constant stimulation, or is she just a spoilt brat, who's parents give her no bounderies, allowing her to behave how she wants?

I'll be having my first child soon, so I'm worried in case I end up with such a child. How do you know the correct way of raising a child, so they are pleasant and well behaved, or is it just trial and error and the luck of the draw?

[sun5hinez]

It is a problem now the way children seem to behave. They have very little respect for adults and don't do anything they are told. I have two children 6 and 8 and have found raising them the hardest thing I have ever ever done. Saying that, I wouldn't be without them. They are not perfect and not little angels and have pushed me to the limit at times. But, I can say that when we go out they are well behaved. They do not cheek me or answer me back in ways I see other children do to their parents. This has been through huge, huge amounts of effort and tears from the beginning. Discipline needs to be set right from the start, and that doesn't mean smacking. But I agree, the way I see some children behaving and the parents just screeching their heads off or ignoring. It is just so sad. The next generation are growing up in a world where they have stimulation everywhere that they just can't seem to behave without the constant TV and console games, bits of plastic fads and all the time going to theme parks etc. I despair of the future for them. When they start school it is even worse as so many of the children haven't been taught morals and good manners and discipline is the last thing they know. I do not know the answer, only firm love with your children from the beginning. And like I said, I don't believe in smacking as a punishment.

[poppy006]

It sounds as if the answer to your problem would be a stout rope,a priest and all of the necessary equipment to perform a devil banishment ceremony... GOOD LUCK...