A family psychologist explained why children should not be given high fives. It is because children are not equal to adults. He warns that if a child is given a high five, the child may begin to rebel.
Author and parenting expert John Rosemond said high fives express friendliness that only goes between equal people. Rosemond explained how he refused to give a high five with his five-year-old grandson. He added that respect for adults is essential in the child’s personality development process, and high-fives are “incompatible with respect.”
“Children who can high-five with adults have implicit permission to talk to them as if they were their peers. If you give a child a high five, he will try to talk to you on an equal footing.”
“The more adults and children get along as equals, the more problems they have with their relationships. This is because there is no reason for a child to obey an adult who high-fives him, and happy children are submissive children. This is the truth. The study was conducted on a common sense basis.” This is the conclusion of a column written by Rosemond.
The problem is that many parents and ordinary people disagree.
As a mother of a 14-month-old child, I have used high fives as a way of praising my daughter when she did something well. For example, when a daughter takes her first step, when she eats the food she ate before again, or when she finds out how to put the right shape into the hole in the shape classifier.
In this process, I didn’t feel that the high five was strange. Rather, our relationship was only getting closer and closer. You can tell by the bright face you encounter when you give a high five.
Psychotherapist and counselor Daniel Brown also deny the theory that high fives are a problem for children in some way.
“In fact, I think high fives can be encouraging. If a child is good at something or acts well, it’s like, ‘Here, high-five, good job. I’m nothing short of saying ‘I’m thrilled with what you’ve done or done!. And high fives can actually encourage the child to continue the proper way,” Brown added.
