When Does Acceptance Become Enabling? [StartYour Week]

Have you ever seen people doing things that were against the rules you were taught and the general norms of society? It bothered you didn’t it, especially if those rule breakers ended up creating a new trend.

When I was 8 years old I watched my cousin talk back to his mother.  She told him to take the garbage out and he said he wasn’t going to do it; she could do it herself. My cousin’s younger sister and I stood there in shock as we waited for the hammer to drop and punish him right in front of our eyes.

But it didn’t happen.

His mom just walked away in disgust. Later, the younger sister was told to clean up the mess she had made with her toys. She said, “No, I don’t want to.”

Again, her mom got a frustrated look on her face and walked away. The little girl also got away with talking back to her mother. My aunt accepted that disrespectful behavior and enabled her two kids to learn that it was ok to talk back to your parents.   Acceptance becomes enabling.

If I would have talked back to my parents when I was growing up they would have enabled me to pick my teeth out of my underwear.