To find this slightly disturbing?

[PrettyCandles]

When talking about foods to a group of Year 1 children, I mentioned horseradish and one of the children said "I know what horseradish is! My mum gives it me when I'm naughty."

[yellowrose]

quite, the CHILD and its behaviour aren't autonomous either which is what rebi was suggesting by saying that children with "challenging" behaviour were born that way.

it takes two to tango as they say.

[JetPeanut]

Must be so nice to live in your perfect world YR, where children can be programmed like computers. Get real.

[yellowrose]

no they can't be programmed. but they can be taught. there is a difference.

[tigermoth]

I can't agree at all with your POV yellowrose. I think humans are much more complicated than your argument gives them credit for.

Leaving aside the issue of undiagnosed special needs, you must have seen in the families you know in real life how one sibling can be more 'difficult' than anther, The home might be a wonderfully warm place, the parents caring and sensitive to the different personalities of their children, but still one child is 'good' while another is 'challenging'.

There are so many threads on mumsnet about problem behaviour, and much of them are about one child in a family, not all the siblings combined. Does that not persuade you that problem children can come from loving parents who are doing their best? (Or is that because said parents spend too much time on mumsnet )

If good parenting alone made good children where are the manuals to give parents set instructions to follow for the ideal child? Where are the statistics to show that 'X' method produces a 'Y' personality and 'B' method produces a 'C' personality?

If you own child exhibits problem behaviour, will you blame yourself first and foremost? If so, you are choosing a hard view of life for yourself