Parenting styles differ from person to person — and one New York mom just shared her hot take on what to do with your kids when on a family vacation.
Stephanie Woodward is no stranger to openly sharing how she and her husband, Ryan Chalmers, parent their 13-month-old triplets and two foster children, 9 and 7, on the family’s Instagram page.
In a recent video titled “3 Controversial Things I Make My Kids Do On Vacation,” Woodward shared that regardless of where her family is — on vacation or at home — she makes her older boys do a math worksheet every single day of summer vacation.
“I don’t want them to experience a summer slump and I want them to feel really prepared and excited for the year ahead of them,” she explained in her Instagram reel.
Another eyebrow-raising parenting take — that would probably make most parents clutch their pearls — is that Woodward lets her 9 and 7-year-old navigate the family when they’re traveling.
“Whether we are walking around a tourist area in Washington D.C. or a resort in the Cayman Islands, or somewhere else. They are going to be able to read the map and tell us how to get there and if this means we waste some time going in the wrong direction, then so be it,” the mom of five explained.
“Because I want them to be able to navigate for themselves as they continue to get older.”
The third “controversial” thing this mama bear proudly does with her kids is make them stop and read a “rules sign” anytime the family comes across one.
“We were recently at a water park…we will stop and read the sign that says all the rules before we go in and I have my kids read it out loud,” Woodward said in her video.
As out-of-the-box as Woodward’s approach to parenting might be — she received an overwhelmingly positive response to her video.
“As a teacher, I applaud you on all three!!!”
“Great job, they will be functioning adults someday! We need more of this.”
“We made our kids navigate too and now they’re super confident travelers!!”
While Woodward’s parenting style is beneficial — others are more toxic.
If you’re the sort of parent who pushes your kid to sign up for every extracurricular activity or gets annoyed at them for a bad grade because of what it might look like to their teacher — you’re ego parenting.
“Ego parenting is when a parent is parenting from their own need to feel good, right, in control, or validated,” mental health therapist Cheryl Groskopf told Pop Sugar.
“It’s less about supporting the child’s growth and more about protecting the parent’s image or feelings.”
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