15 Ways to Ruin Your Child & Your Life

Robert Shaw, MD
09/07/14 - Bulletin

1. Don't plan ahead. Don't think early on about arranging a secure home in which to raise a child. Especially, don't pick a husband or wife with character traits that would make him or her a true partner and supporter as you rear your children.
2. Leave your infant to be raised by an inadequate or unconnected caretaker for too many hours.
3. Keep yourself stressed and busy. Be exhausted when you come home. It's especially effective to feel guilty about being away.
4. Give in to your child's whims on everything and demand nothing in return. That will make up for neglect.
5. Facilitate your child's ascent into the world of consumerism. Accommodate his endless urges for the latest, coolest, most attractive, most superficial things.
6. Let your child think he is the boss of the universe. That way you can avoid frustrating or regulating him.
7. Live without thoughts of the larger meaning of your life and your child's life.
8. Don't subscribe to a code of ethics or morals that can override your own impulses — and definitely don't expose your child to such a code.
9. Be sure your three or four-year-old child sleeps in your bed, suckles, wears disposable underwear, and is pushed around in a stroller while you get your exercise.
10. Don't supervise your child's friendships.
11. Let your, child enjoy all the TV, videos, and video games he wants.
12. Act as though your child is on his own already.
13. Don’t take her out for genuine, loving times together with no interruptions. Don't just hang out and have fun — it's also effective for children to have their days scheduled to the minute.
14. Don't mess with your child's relationship to sex, drugs, tobacco, and alcohol.
15. Never give your child chores or expect her to be a partner in running the house.

— From Shaw's book, The Epidemic

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