We all need to set limits for our children, this makes them safe in an unsafe world and helps them to appreciate and live within, the social mores that make our society work. We know this but sometimes we do not enforce these limits.
When you decide it is bedtime and your child resists do you always reinforce the limit or do you occasionally cave, give in, because your child is so cute, you enjoy their company so much?
It is all very well to be "flexible" but, flexibility is not always the best option.
When adults are tired, have a sleep deficit, feel guilty about something, or are beset by other worries, we are more likely to take the easy way out. Children figure this out at an early stage and if we give in once, why not a second or third time, in fact is there really a limit at all?
Learning that boundaries may be tested but not set aside is a life lesson. Learning to be wise enough to enforce the boundaries which we have set for our children's security, or in their best interest, is a parental responsibility which we ignore at our peril.
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