|
My parents did the best they could. Kept me from watching much TV, tried to keep me from the computer (that didn't work), did not allow guns of any sort (including water guns), and provided a variety of sports and activities for me to do.
Even so, in third grade I was thinking more about damming up irrigation ditches in cow pastures, and laughing at the cattle standing in inches of water, or placing objects in the middle of the road to watch cars destroy them as they rolled over (yes, I caused some flats).
In fifth grade I did used to go with my friends and their dad's shotgun out to a field and shot gophers (yes during my younger years I grew up in the boonies), and well I now see how easily that situation could have turned into a state or even national tragedy of some sort (well, probably no tragedy since we were just quiet mountain town kids).
Good parenting isn't just trying to hide your kids from the "evils" of the world, but it's teaching your kids to make wise and healthy decisions. No matter what every child will have the opportunity throughout their lifes to make plenty of decisions that could severly hinder or even be fatal to them. Not only teaching your children, but correcting them, and most important of all... being an example. If you teach them one thing and do another you may as well just hide the guns, razorblades, and drugs as best as you can.
|