In a world where diversity and difference are beautiful things, we should be encouraging children to be their true selves. Anyone trying to stifle that is a bully in my book. Kids aren’t strangers to bullying, but it somehow feels worse when it comes from adults. A Karen from Kentucky who preaches on subjects related to ’empowered parenting’ and Christian values has a lot to say about raising kids to be ‘weird.’
Jane—empowered_parentingjane on TikTok—posts videos related to her Empowered Parenting courses. She tries to sell courses to parents that supposedly help them ‘take control’ of their families and ‘set boundaries’ within the household. Jane explains in her video that allowing kids to be ‘weird’ is “setting them up for low self-esteem and bullying.” She says when a child isn’t taught to be “socially acceptable,” they’ll face rejection and struggle when they’re an adult.
Jane also says if your kid is weird, it means “you’re not doing your job as a parent,” and “silly behavior” is bad and needs to be corrected. She goes on to say, “You’re expecting society to just accept whatever they throw out there. That’s not how this works.”
Is anybody actually taking this woman seriously and signing up for her parenting classes? “As a child therapist of almost 20 years, I need you to break out of this mindset and stop telling parents to do this. Kids do not need to fit the mold, and they can always find people that will accept them for their authentic selves,” one commenter urged. Another person asked, “You know who criticizes kids for being ‘weird’? Bullies.” Although mean, one commenter wanted to know if Jane’s children still talk to her. Zing!
“Weird kids are creative kids. They grow up to be artists, filmmakers, writers, musicians, etc. I’m not raising stock brokers or insurance sales people. I’m raising weird, creative kids who will never listen to you,” and how right they are! My own children have weird hobbies and little oddities and things they do that would make Jane scowl.
We all have little things that make us special and unique. I could never imagine dimming your child’s spirit the way Jane expects us to. Hopefully, people aren’t really wasting their money on this clown and her ‘lessons.’
