My uncle has a 5-year-old daughter named Sasha. For some time, little Sasha has a reputation of being a spoilt brat among our relatives. But that’s just hearway. I’ve never seen her antics so I had my reservations. Until one particular evening during a family get-together at a restaurant dinner …

When we reach the restaurant, little Sasha was so adorable sitting quietly with her parents. Behaving nicely until his parents ordered the dishes. While we waited for the food to be served, Sasha started get restless and asked her mother to go buy some toys. My uncle and aunty excused themselves and went out to find toys to please her. They asked us not to wait for them to start the dinner if they come back late. They came back 30 minutes later. Just in time to dig in as the all the dishes were served by then.

What was supposed to be a pleasant dinner took a turn for the worst when the Sasha started to cry again and this time, she wanted to leave. I asked why? They told me little Sasha gets terrified whenever she sees people getting ready to close shop. So when the restaurant staff started to clean the place up and preparing to close, Sasha insisted everyone leave the restaurant immediately. She were throwing tantrums and crying so loud. The restaurant owner, aware of the situation, instructed his staff to stop the cleaning. But little Sasha wouldn’t stop crying and kept asking everyone to leave. Her dad got angry and scolded her. In return, he got scolded by her wife for scolding their daughter. The best part was his wife had the guts to ask everyone to give in to Sasha, leave and go to another restaurant which is not about to close. There’s still so much food left on the table at that time. I was about to leave but my uncle-in-law told all of us to sit down and finish the food. So Sasha, her mom and dad left the restaurant while the rest of us continued with our dinner.

No prize for guessing what ‘topic-of-the-day’ was during the dinner. From what I was told, this is just one instance of Sasha’s misbehaviour during family outings and thank god, it’s only a mild one. They’ve experience a lot of arkward situations before when Sasha starts to act up. But what truly disgruntle them is that my uncle and her wife never bothered to scold, be firm and explain why she can’t do or asks for certain things. And I can’t agree more.

I believe most kids aren’t born spoilt. It is obvious the cause of little Sasha’s spoilt behaviour stems from her mother’s reluctance to deny anything she wants, even demands that are simply outrageous. Disciplined and good parenting is such an important aspect to shape a child’s behaviour. Unfortunately, the sort of parenting style adopted by my uncle’s wife will raise a child who thinks she will get whatever she wants. And no one can deny her of it. Or else, all she has to do is just cry for mama.