A mum-of-three who doesn’t believe in strict bedtimes and teaches her kids to swear has revealed she thinks it’s “lazy” to raise obedient children.
Luana Ribeira previously hit the headlines after revealing her controversial relationship takes, including sleeping with her ex-husband’s best friend, before asking him to move in only months later.
Now, the mum-of-three has turned heads once again after claiming her children, Seren, 13, Electra, 12 and even tot, Ceyln, one, decide their own bedtimes and include various swear words in their vocabulary.
For the 41 year-old, she believes it’s important to raise kids who are able to think for themselves and encourages them to use their words whenever expressing emotion.
However, the PR company founder says that not everyone agrees with her approach – with her children often dubbed “free-range.”
“I believe that raising obedient children is lazy and we should be raising them to have their own mind, to question the world around them and not just blindly accept what they’re told,” Luana, from Anglesey, told NeedToKnow.Online.
“I don’t really pay attention to what other people are saying, as it’s none of my business – but my kids have been called ‘wild’ or ‘rebellious’ before.
‘I’ve also had my eldest compared to Wednesday Addams, but this doesn’t bother me.
“It really tickles me, but I guess it’s because I give them freedom and let them make their own choices.
“I’m very happy to be raising kids that are wild and can think for themselves.”
Often, her kids use swear words to express themselves whenever playing video games or if they’ve injured themselves – but instead of scolding them, she focuses on their emotions.
Speaking about her reason behind this, she said: “What I teach them is that it’s not the swear word that’s ‘bad’ but the intention behind it.
“For example, if they stubbed their toe and a swear word slipped out, I ask if they’re OK.
“If they’re playing a video game and an expletive jumps out of their mouth, as they’re full of adrenaline trying to win the game, then it means nothing to me.
“However, if they were to use the same word with vicious intent or were calling someone names, I would pull them up on it.
“This has never happened though, so they understand the difference.
“My kids also understand that while I’m not offended by it, some people are and they know not to swear in school or around certain people, such as family members.”
At age five, her eldest used the f-word innocently after attempting to say the word “duck” and since then, the family have treated the censored language as second nature.
Luana puts her “softer” parenting attitudes down to her own upbringing, where she recalls being “encouraged” to be independent.
Alongside swearing, her kids don’t have bedtimes, including the one-year-old, but draws the line at her daughters adopting an omnivore diet.
She said: “They don’t have a bedtime and I let them stay up as late as they’d like, as I’d rather they wait until showing signs of being tired.
“On a school night, they go to bed at around 10pm and tend to stay up later on weekends or school holidays, which can be closer to midnight.
“I let them stay up and deal with the consequences of how they feel the next day.
“I also tried to raise them as vegan, but they’ve decided they want to eat meat and I’m not happy about this at all – but I have to accept their choices.
“I’m trying to drill into them the importance of healthy eating and getting them to connect with how they feel with what they’ve eaten that day, so they get better at listening to their bodies.”
Now, she’s expressed the reasoning behind her approach in a bid to promote being “kinder” to kids.
Luana added: “I’m strongly against making a child behave in a certain way through fear.
“I would prefer to allow my kids to do what they want, as long as they’re not in a dangerous situation.
“This way, they don’t hide anything from me and I always know what’s going on with them.
“I want them to know they can come to me with anything that’s on their mind, without being judged or told off.
“It would be easy for me to threaten and shout to get them to behave the way I want, to mould them into ‘perfect’ children who never do wrong – but it wouldn’t be them, they would just be following orders.
“Kids are smarter than we often give them credit for.”
