Were you wellbehaved or badlybehaved as a child?

OK, it’s been ages since I tackled one of these Storyworth questions……..Yes, I think mostly I would have been considered well behaved. It was certainly an expectation back then that children WERE well behaved. There was little space for ‘bad’ behaviours, mostly I think because it was seen as reflecting on the ability of parents to ‘discipline' and to produce compliant little people. What 'other people thought’ seemed much more important back then than it is now.

For myself, I think it was important to my self image that I was seen as being ‘good'. Back then,It was also more acceptable for parents to be actually seen to exert discipline, including punishment of one sort of another, than it is nowadays. The change may have begun with those parents who grew up in the crazy 60’s and 70’s and who produced a generation where freedom to express yourself became more important than any expected discipline. Those kids went on to become the parents of today.

That said, and although many children today seem to have more input into what is and is not acceptable behaviour, do think that encouraging children to take responsibility for their own behaviour, is important,not being solely reactive to the expectations of the adults around them. However, I do think some of the old rules still hold good and sometimes it just has to be 'because I said so’! Was I a ‘good child? probably…..did I test my parent’s rules? certainly.

And did I sneakily find a way around some of those rules? absolutely! Did my parents know? probably … though I would have liked to think that I was able to pull the wool over their eyes! I doubt that much of that has changed over the years!