I got mum shamed for ‘manipulating’ my four-year-old when she screams in my face
THERE are plenty of parenting techniques out there to help you raise your child.
But Sabriena Abrre has been slammed for using a ‘gentle parenting‘ technique that some claim is manipulation.
The US-based mum revealed that her four-year-old daughter had screamed in her face during one meltdown, so she decided it was the perfect opportunity to practice gentle parenting.
She said: “I quickly was reminded of being a child and yelled at by my mother and being slapped across the face or being put in time out, being punished.
“As someone that’s gentle parented for four years I know that I want to be able to handle these situations differently.
“My knee jerk reaction in this moment is to be like ‘don’t you dare scream at me, like, I’m your mum, you don’t disrespect me like that.'”
So Sabriena decided to take a different, calmer approach.
Instead, the mum told her daughter that her feelings were really hurt and that she needed space so walked out of the room.
She explained this was to help her daughter feel remorse and apologise without being forced to.
Making out like her daughter had ‘ruined her entire day’ the mum walked away.
“The second I cut off access to me, set that boundary and turned my back, my daughter started screaming ‘I’m so sorry,'” she explained.
The mum then sat down with her daughter to identify what the problem was that caused her to shout in the first place.
But the TikTok video posted to her account @sabriena_abrre soon went viral with over 220k views and over 30k likes.
People were quick to share their opinions of the mums technique in the comments, and many claimed she shouldn’t have ‘manipulated’ her daughter to say sorry.
One person wrote: “Honestly I know you mean well but it feels a lot like guilt tripping and It would just destroy me when my mom did that to me.”
Another commented: “I love your parenting style! I thought about the technique too but always worried that it could be taken as a guilt trip or manipulative.”
“No this is emotional abuse,” penned a third.
But plenty of other parents praised the mum for her technique.
A fourth said: “No this so smart!!!! She’s learning to respect people’s feelings instead of being forced to have remorse!”
“This was an amazing parenting lesson, thank you for sharing,” claimed a fifth.
Someone else added: “This is such a good model for her to see that SHE can set those same boundaries in the future + also learning that her actions do affect others.”
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