The Top
12 Signs You Can’t Say NO To Your Child*
by Susan Newman, Ph.D.
If
three of these sounds vaguely like you, it’s likely that your children turn
you into a yes-person quite easily. It’s time to take stock and learn how to
say NO.
1. Your living room looks like a toy store.
2. At any given hour the couch doubles as a trampoline, a wrestling mat, a
hiding place or arts and crafts center.
3. Your child wears his Halloween costume to school in February.
4. You’re on a first-name basis with the workers at McDonald’s.
5. Your child has everything her best friend has.
6. Your six-year-old stays up so late that he can fill you in on Jay Leno’s
monologue from the night before.
7. Your daughter’s last birthday party was more elaborate than your wedding.
8. You have three dogs, two kittens, and a parakeet who all hang out around
the fish tank.
9. You spend most Saturday evenings in the movie theatre parking lot waiting
for your children and their friends.
10. You spend Sunday evenings writing history reports and crafting science
projects you found out about during dinner.
11. The text messaging charges are bigger than your monthly cell phone fee.
12. Your child’s band equipment takes up both parking spaces in the garage.
To find out why you give in to your children and how to stop, see: www.thebookofno.com
*Adapted from The Book of NO: 250 Ways to Say It--and Mean It and
Stop People-pleasing Forever by Susan Newman, Ph.D.
©
2006 Susan Newman, Ph.D
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Newman, Ph.D.
is a social psychologist and author of The
Book of NO: 250 Ways to Say It--And Mean It and Stop People-Pleasing Forever
(McGraw-Hill, Jan. 2006), Nobody's
Baby Now: Reinventing Your Adult Relationship with Your Mother and Father
(Walker & Company), Parenting
An Only Child: The Joys & Challenges of Raising Your One & Only
(Broadway/Doubleday) and Little
Things Long Remembered Making Your Children Feel Special Every Day(Crown),
among others. See: http://www.susannewmanphd.com
and www.thebookofno.com
