Thursday, April 19, 2012

Parenting...such a tough subject



Wow, it's been so long!  Even my blogger dashboard thought it was a long time since it made me sign in again!!

My poor little man Liam has had a rough week but is finally on the mend.  Thanks to the help of my mother I was able to get some work done this week.  For all of you with children who do not have the benefit of having family around to help out, I applaud you.  I do not think I could do this without them!

So a little shout out to my parents for helping out!!!  Thanks for everything!!

Today's post is just going to be a little rant about things I have been thinking about.  I have lots of projects, ideas and thoughts to come in the future but the world has been a little tospy turvy and next week we are heading on vacation!!

A few of my thoughts have been about how we raise our children these days, I have seen posts about the overprotection of our children.  I grew up in a small city, we don't have a lot of crime, poverty or huge issues.  So perhaps I just don't get it but I remember hearing this cbc story on the radio about the amount of people that were up in arms because a woman put her 9 yr son on the NYC subway by himself.

They lived and her son had grown up in NYC, so one day she let him travel from Bloomingdale's to home and she met him there.  She had given him a metro pass, a map, and $20.  Apperently he had been asking for a very long time and was super excited to go.  He made out fine and I am sure travels it extremely well by now.  She got huge flack for it and I personally think she shouldn't have.  Now I don't live in New York (obviously) and have only travelled the subway system there once but it's not unlike any subway system.  They really aren't so bad, at night it might get a little tricky but for a child who has been given instructions and rode on it many times it's a way of life!

She wrote a book called Free Range Kids and also has a blog called Free Range Kids here and which I think is great.  People continue to say that our society is more dangerous, scary and not safe.  However I don't know that we have any more actual dangers, crimes or issues than before, if anything it might be a little safer.  Now we are just able to get every bad story from anywhere in the world and the happy ones are forgotten or just aren't good media!!!  When we grew up, you didn't here about the child that got abducted in Port Alberni, BC (as an example) but now you know it the moment they alert the police.  It's great if you live in Port Alberni, BC because then you can be on the look out for this child but it doesn't help parents in other cities and towns.  It just makes everyone that much more scared to let their children do anything without supervision.

I live within walking distance of the elementary school that my children will attend, I can actually hear the announcements we live that close.  I see parents walking their 8 and 9 yr old children to school each morning.  (a side note:  the neighbourhood I live in does not have busy streets that need to be taken into consideration, I can only go by the experience I had and will have)   I walked to school everyday from grade one (6yrs) old until I took the bus in grade 10.  So did everyone else in my neighbourhood.  Our parents did not walk us to school; they got us up, organized and sent us out the door!  I plan to do the same thing with my children.  They will be walking to school alone from what others will consider a young age.  Currently, they are allowed to play outside in our yard without my constant supervision right now at ages 4 and 2.  They know they are not go on the road or to the neighbours unless the neighbours are outside (no one wants someone else playing in their backyard!!) And I of course check on them but I am trying to teach them to follow rules on their own, sometimes it works great and sometimes I look outside to see Rhys strolling back into our yard from the neighbours!!!


Now I don't want anyone to think that I let my children run around unruly and do not care about their well being or about safety (I am always saying "safety counts").  My children are being taught to respect people and things, listen and follow rules, help, learn new things and have fun doing it.  They do not always follow those teachings and won't always but I have to have faith that they will learn them and make the most of them.  My hope is that they turn out to be wonderful, independant men and I think that has to start now. 

I believe that you provide your children with the information they need to make good decision, teach them right from wrong, show them how to do things and allow them to experience it for themselves. If you don't do this now, how are they going to fend for themselves when society believes it's time for them.  You need to learn to be careful, make proper decision and handle things on your own but if you haven't been given the opportunity then how can you.

I, in no way, want to push my views on other people because it's one of my pet peeves.  I just wanted to share what I thought about this topic.  Some, all or none of you might agree with me and that's ok either way. 

I just want everyone else to think about it, how was it when you grew up?

Are things that much different?


1 comment:

  1. Remember when we would go to the general store on our own like once a week......just had to watch out for trains.

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