By Gracie Bonds Staples
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s nearly impossible, if you’re a parent, to read about country singer Billy Ray Cyrus’ troubled relationship with this pop-star daughter, Miley, and not recognize his achy-breaky heart.
Children have a way of stoking regret in us, causing us to wonder like the singer if perhaps we should’ve been more parent and less friend.
It’s a question Cyrus has been asking a lot in recent weeks. What’s his answer?
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“You don’t need to be a friend, you need to be a parent,” Cyrus has been quoted as saying.
Turns out, few in metro Atlanta would disagree. Those who do, said parents, ought to try to at least strike a healthy balance.
Indeed, when it comes to her 4-year-old son Jagger Drinnon, there’s no question in Jessica Pedraza’s mind.
“He is not my friend,” said Pedraza of Sandy Springs.
The 34-year-old mother said she made that clear recently when Jagger refused to brush his teeth. When she insisted, Pedraza said he shot back: “I’m not going to be your friend anymore.”
To that, she told him: “I don’t care. I don’t need you to be my friend. I’m your mom. I’m here to show you what’s right from wrong.”
If there were such a thing, experts would be lining up to give Pedraza a parenting medal.
“Parents should definitely be parents,” said Christy Buchanan, professor of psychology at Wake Forest University and an expert on parent-child relationships.
Robert Epstein, a distinguished researcher and former editor in chief of Psychology Today, agreed.
Epstein said that because parents love their children more than anyone else in the world and want the best for them more than anyone else in the world, they are in a superb position to prepare them for the adult world, to be their guide.
“That’s your main job,” he said. “You can’t do that as a friend because that’s not what friends do.”
http://www.ajc.com/news/lifestyles/experts-dont-be-parent-and-friend/nQrNw/
