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How was I raised? Go out and play definitely. As long as I was back by nightfall I was fine. I was not supposed to cross the highway, and since the train tracks and the river were on the other side of the highway I was DEFINITELY not supposed to be near the trains or the river. I did break the rules and played on the trains once, and it did start moving down the tracks while I was playing on a traincar filled with large steel pips. Thanks to being forewarned, and NOT learning physics from movies, I knew better than to jump from the train once it started moving. I stayed on board until it stopped in a town 30 miles away (for a 9 year old I was about as scared as you get). I knew I broke the rules, my parents would be livid if they found out, and found a phone to call my friend down the street, and his parents came and picked me up. To this day I still don't believe my parents have found out about this adventure.
The only difference I want for my son, is for him to know it is OK to call me when he gets in trouble.
Even when I got older, and drove the family car off a cliff, I had it towed out, went to a junkyard and got all the parts I needed to replace the front end of the car all before my parents got back home. Even though the front end of the car was now a darker shade of red I still tried to get away with not telling them about my "mishap" because I knew what trouble I was in for.
I think people don't give kids credit for being as capable as they actually are.
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In the Absence of Information People Make Things Up.
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