Probably everyone knows the book by A.K. Westley “Mom, Dad, Grandma, 8 Children and a Truck.” But she has many other equally wonderful stories. There is nothing heroic or even instructive in the books of A.K. Westley. And that’s what’s good about them. Ordinary adults and children live in them and are faced with ordinary questions: the appearance of a younger sister in the family; how to teach them to cross the road and distinguish between right and left; how offensive it is when other kids at school don’t accept you, etc. Only they solve all these issues differently than we are used to, not in the way they raised us. I remember N. Nosov’s books here, when children are forced to cope on their own, where they are shamed and ridiculed. And it’s breathtaking that, it turns out, this is also possible, that the world doesn’t fall apart if we don’t lecture the child right now, and no, he won’t grow up to be an ignoramus, a janitor, a thief if we don’t shame him regularly. This is the situation. Parents teach five-year-old Ole-Alexander to cross the road. Mom tells you that you need to look to the left, then to the right, and that you can tell left from right by the fact that your heart is on the left (at the same time they say where the heart is!). Dad claims that it’s too complicated, and you can just sew something on the left sleeve. After that, dad put two chairs, with a “street” between them. Mom and Dad pretend to be trucks, Ole Alexander must practice crossing the road. That's all. The question is settled. Without long lectures, repetitions, instructions. Adults play with the child, at the same time acting out real situations. In my opinion, this is wonderful :)) They teach the child like a child (and children cannot learn like adults): in play, resorting to simple visual ways to regulate behavior (they put a patch on the left sleeve); they follow the child, not forgetting the rules security. He himself wanted to start walking on his own, and his parents respect this desire for independence, but they take care that nothing happens to their son. It is noteworthy that other adults in Westley’s books do not teach parents how to behave, what they should and should not do, but help them! After that, Ole Alexander was allowed to go for a real walk on his own for one minute... And, of course, like any little boy, having seen something incredibly interesting, he forgot both about the minute and about mom and dad. And he got lost...And here, too, Westley shows that punishment and explanations are not the only way to interact with a child. And also that mom and dad are imperfect, they can also make mistakes. And this is normal. Such normalization of childhood and parenthood. Free channel to help parents https://t.me/Roditelstvo_psyWhatsApp 8(995)903-04-49