So I'm staying at a hotel in Texas, and last night a woman with a child about 7 or 8 years old checked into the room next to me. I don't know who the woman is, but the kid is named Bobby.
I know this because until about 2:00 am, there was an unending monologue of "Bobby, don't" "Bobby, stop that" "Bobby, quit" "No, Bobby" repeated ad infinitum.
It is coincidence, because I was just reading earlier in the day a blog by a woman named Lenore Skenazy, called "Free Range Kids".
Her perspective is that we, as a society in general, have become so overprotective of our kids that we are doing them a disservice.
The Tea Cup reference is from College Administrators who refer to the kids enrolling these days as "Tea Cups". Outwardly beautiful, but in reality very fragile and easily broken.
Our fear of child predators has made our children virtual prisoners in our homes, if they go on their own to the store or the park they will surely be abducted.
Our over use of anti-bacterial soaps and hand cleansers has effectively reduced the ability of our children to fight off common infections.
Our kids must be dressed like a member of the Bomb Squad before they are allowed to participate in any physical activity, like riding a bicycle or playing a team sport. God forbid that any park should have a set of "monkey bars", those horrible contraptions have killed millions of children, and with few exceptions, have been removed and reduced to scrap.
Don't get me wrong. Our children are the most valuable thing on the face of the earth, and deserve our protection.
But isn't "protection" more than just keeping the kids off of the monkey bars, prohibiting the climbing of trees, and imbedding a bizzare and unnatural fear of all strangers on the planet in their tiny little brains?
All generations say "When I was a kid, we didn't worry about (insert fearful activity here), we just played outdoors till sundown", so I recognize that there is always a nostalgic yearning for things past, even if the situation has changed such that those things can no longer be done as they were.
But have things changed so drastically that we must now treat our offspring as delicate flowers, to be protected against every single possible adverse thing in life? How does this help them learn to cope with things that don't "go their way"?
The loving discipline applied to me as a kid prepared me for a life that is swift to provide consequences to my actions, should they be less than expected. This loving discipline provided by my mother and father is now viewed as Child Abuse, and is likely to end badly for the parents. And by proxy, is likely to end badly for the child in the form of undisciplined and unknowing waifs trying to survive in a dog eat dog world.
I bet a single swat on the butt would have significantly reduced the number of "Bobby, stop that"'s last night.
I have the sad feeling that Bobbys future is somehow bleaker than mine was, and I hope that he is able to overcome the obstacles placed in his path by the very person who should be providing him the tools to overcome those obstacles.
Just my Opinion, what's yours?
I know this because until about 2:00 am, there was an unending monologue of "Bobby, don't" "Bobby, stop that" "Bobby, quit" "No, Bobby" repeated ad infinitum.
It is coincidence, because I was just reading earlier in the day a blog by a woman named Lenore Skenazy, called "Free Range Kids".
Her perspective is that we, as a society in general, have become so overprotective of our kids that we are doing them a disservice.
The Tea Cup reference is from College Administrators who refer to the kids enrolling these days as "Tea Cups". Outwardly beautiful, but in reality very fragile and easily broken.
Our fear of child predators has made our children virtual prisoners in our homes, if they go on their own to the store or the park they will surely be abducted.
Our over use of anti-bacterial soaps and hand cleansers has effectively reduced the ability of our children to fight off common infections.
Our kids must be dressed like a member of the Bomb Squad before they are allowed to participate in any physical activity, like riding a bicycle or playing a team sport. God forbid that any park should have a set of "monkey bars", those horrible contraptions have killed millions of children, and with few exceptions, have been removed and reduced to scrap.
Don't get me wrong. Our children are the most valuable thing on the face of the earth, and deserve our protection.
But isn't "protection" more than just keeping the kids off of the monkey bars, prohibiting the climbing of trees, and imbedding a bizzare and unnatural fear of all strangers on the planet in their tiny little brains?
All generations say "When I was a kid, we didn't worry about (insert fearful activity here), we just played outdoors till sundown", so I recognize that there is always a nostalgic yearning for things past, even if the situation has changed such that those things can no longer be done as they were.
But have things changed so drastically that we must now treat our offspring as delicate flowers, to be protected against every single possible adverse thing in life? How does this help them learn to cope with things that don't "go their way"?
The loving discipline applied to me as a kid prepared me for a life that is swift to provide consequences to my actions, should they be less than expected. This loving discipline provided by my mother and father is now viewed as Child Abuse, and is likely to end badly for the parents. And by proxy, is likely to end badly for the child in the form of undisciplined and unknowing waifs trying to survive in a dog eat dog world.
I bet a single swat on the butt would have significantly reduced the number of "Bobby, stop that"'s last night.
I have the sad feeling that Bobbys future is somehow bleaker than mine was, and I hope that he is able to overcome the obstacles placed in his path by the very person who should be providing him the tools to overcome those obstacles.
Just my Opinion, what's yours?
