Thursday, July 07, 2005
It's The End of the World
I'm going to hell!
Or I would be if I was sure such a place existed. I've noticed a trend in the past weeks as I flit from blog to blog, the repeated theme of 'protecting the children' (and whenever I see this, I'm sorry, but, I hear the voice of Reverend Lovejoy's wife).
I don't censor anything we watch/read/speak of, in our house. I don't lie to my child (oh, all right, Santa and the tooth fairy. Shoot me!). but generally, I don't pretty things up, and the only way I protect him is to instill our rules, and to arm him with knowledge. But then this is the woman who insisted her 9yr old watch the beach landing sequence in Saving Private Ryan, because I felt it was essential that he see the most honest representation of the damage guns do (and not the usual hollywood pap with bullets flying everywhere that never seem to hit anyone.). Yes he was disturbed by it. I meant him to be. He tried to bail about five minutes into it, but I held firm. A horrible mother? perhaps. Yet I was so proud of him when later he came to me and asked all the questions he did. We had a wonderful, open discussion about war and it's affects, and that's exactly the result I'd hoped for.
My way is neither right nor wrong, it is simply the way that works best for us. Bottom line is, I don't go around crusading to make the world a safer place for children. (Good grief! that playground is dangerous... OMG! this is a potential health hazard. Ban it. Ban it all) Mainly because I seriously question whether that is even possible. No, I try my damnedest to make my child safe to go out into the world. And, in my humble but correct opinion, censoring his world is not helpful.
X
Or I would be if I was sure such a place existed. I've noticed a trend in the past weeks as I flit from blog to blog, the repeated theme of 'protecting the children' (and whenever I see this, I'm sorry, but, I hear the voice of Reverend Lovejoy's wife).
I don't censor anything we watch/read/speak of, in our house. I don't lie to my child (oh, all right, Santa and the tooth fairy. Shoot me!). but generally, I don't pretty things up, and the only way I protect him is to instill our rules, and to arm him with knowledge. But then this is the woman who insisted her 9yr old watch the beach landing sequence in Saving Private Ryan, because I felt it was essential that he see the most honest representation of the damage guns do (and not the usual hollywood pap with bullets flying everywhere that never seem to hit anyone.). Yes he was disturbed by it. I meant him to be. He tried to bail about five minutes into it, but I held firm. A horrible mother? perhaps. Yet I was so proud of him when later he came to me and asked all the questions he did. We had a wonderful, open discussion about war and it's affects, and that's exactly the result I'd hoped for.
My way is neither right nor wrong, it is simply the way that works best for us. Bottom line is, I don't go around crusading to make the world a safer place for children. (Good grief! that playground is dangerous... OMG! this is a potential health hazard. Ban it. Ban it all) Mainly because I seriously question whether that is even possible. No, I try my damnedest to make my child safe to go out into the world. And, in my humble but correct opinion, censoring his world is not helpful.
X
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I missed out on having spawn of my own, but having worked with kids and troubled teenagers for years, I couldn't agree with you more, X. It was mostly the over-protected kids who suffered and lost themselves when life went screwball and they didn't have the knowledge or skills to make choices. And that was really hard to see.
I think that may be impossible for me. I can't help myself... I feel compelled to protect her from everything. Tom hates it. sigh.
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# posted by 
: 7/11/2005 3:11 PM
: 7/11/2005 3:11 PM << Home
