Just try to spend a whole day not telling your kids tohurry up or come on. I need somehelp. We all need help from time to time and parenting is one of the fewjobs that comes without an official instruction manual. Consider what Novick calls the three common errors of parenting. Thefirst is giving away the store.
Parents also pull out the big guns for smallinfractions, like grounding a kid for rude talk.
But the biggest mistake parents make is to cry wolf. More than anything, parents need to be people of their word. You have to be particularly careful about not saying what youcan't make happen. And you have to be careful not to throw up yourhands. Many can, but others can't and need continual support.