From "Love Hotels" to Super Mario Bros
Why there is no “one-size-fits-all” parenting magic trick that works for all children, and how you can understand your child better.
Last night, one of my friends recommended the movie Super Mario Bros to me to go watch with my kids.
I knew Super Mario Bros was made by Nintendo, so I couldn't resist sharing my trivia knowledge about Nintendo with her.
For example, while today Nintendo is known for making games and game consoles, back in 1889 when it was founded they made adult playing cards for gambling.
And while today they focus almost exclusively on family friendly games like Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong, back in the 1960s they also ran a chain of "Love Hotels", which offered affordable rooms and discreet entrances and exits.
In fact, over the years they tried many different product lines, including a taxi cab service, a TV network, and even instant rice at some point.
While my friend wasn't overly impressed with my knowledge of Nintendo facts, it did make me think about how Nintendo's success can be put down to the fact that they were flexible and willing to adapt, until they found something that worked.
And because of that, today they are a billion dollar company.
I believe that the same philosophy is important when it comes to parenting.
For example, have you ever read about a new parenting technique, only for it to completely fail when you try it with your child?
The thing is, every child is different, and every parent is different. So there is no one-size-fits-all technique that will work for everyone, or that will work every time. Just like Nintendo, you have to be flexible and willing to adapt.
When we interviewed Dr. Heather Wittenberg for our book "How To Get Kids To Listen", she shared:
What I’m always reminding parents about is, this isn’t a one size fits all situation. You know, because humans aren’t one size fits all, and so if you have multiple children, or you see other kids, you realize, “Oh, this technique works really well with this particular child. It doesn’t work at all with mine. How come?”
And that’s because my child has a completely different personality than the other child. And just like with adults, for some people, certain things work, and other things don’t, because it has to do with their personality and what works with their personality first.
Dr. Heather Wittenberg
In the interview, Dr. Heather shared how to fit your parenting approach to your child’s unique temperament, and her model of the five most common Personalities of Young Children. By understanding the personality of your child, you can modify any parenting technique to work better with them.
She also shared why it is critical to understand what your child is actually capable of doing, before expecting them to follow rules that they are simply not developmentally able to do.