@DavisMike22    I agree with you 100% on the point of their lives being so easy.  Not to be 'that' person, but I'm a swimming teacher and the amount of children I have encountered who have never even heard the word no, and I'm not taking liberties here, I have actually had a parent tell me that they never use the word 'no', it is astounding.     I also happen to work in higher education, so I have both ends of the spectrum and in all honesty, the older ones are worse.  Their tantrums over not getting the grade they think they deserve etc, as a parent, if it were my child, I'd be deeply ashamed.    I have been told many times that I'm tough on my children, four sons, I think I'm fair. I have expectations of them. God knows the world doesn't seem to have any good ones of them these days. If tough makes my kids polite, kind, socially aware and gives them an understanding of how lucky they are, then tough it is.      ... View more

@gina-Ro    We do tend to make 'deals' with him with regards to attitude and family time. He recently decided to live with his Dad in Perth so now we only have him during school holidays.  Because we have one older and two younger children here, he has at times, found it confronting being back in a true 'family' environment as in Perth, he's an only child with immense gaming freedom.   The expectation is he will contribute to family time, household chores, do daily exercise and spend time with his siblings.  He engages really well with board games and card games and I think this is something that we need to remember. We, as parents, are so busy, always doing something, constantly saying no to our kids because they should 'be able to entertain themselves' forget that interacting is not entertaining.    Family games are a big part of our interaction and assisting our children's learning. But they also need to be free to do their own thing.Within reason.   The one thing I'll say, we do not tolerate bad attitude because they need to stop gaming. You drop the game when asked or told to and you do it with a smile or I'll put the entire console in the bin.  He knows I will too.  :-)     ... View more

I actually agree here. My son wants to be a professional gamer or programmer. The same way I have supported his older brother wanting to be an actor, should I not support his career choice? It is hard to hear people slam me as a parent for not making him more 'constructive' with his time. This is what he wants to do. He has balance. Family time. Exercise time. But the majority of his spare time, he games, watches professionals, makes videos etc. ... View more