Re-posting this bc I forgot to close the italics tag, and it bugs me:
Most of the kids out there, I don't *WANT* my kid socializing with.
Most people's response to this is something along the lines of, "But how will they learn to deal with people who are different/mean/break the rules/whatever thing it is you're objecting to? How will they learn that sometimes life isn't fair and people aren't nice and well-behaved?"
They see this as a valid argument, bc, indeed, some people are mean, etc., and certainly you wouldn't want that to come as a big shock to your kids.
But, come on...the world, esp the media, is inundated with mean, non-well-behaved rule breakers. A lot of humor, esp kid humor, is based on this idea. How could it possibly come as a shock?
I don't think you need to teach your kids to understand or deal with what the world is already full of--they'll absorb it on their own. Much more important to teach them the harder lessons that aren't so obvious. And THAT, you can say to the doubters, is how they will learn to deal w/ the meanness out there: by countering it with their own niceness.
Here's an analogy I bet you'd never thought to hear me use: Christ didn't say to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile bc he was a big wuss with no idea how mean the world could be. He said it bc he knew sometimes the only way to defeat evil is to confound it with goodness. Confusion to the enemy!
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Date: 2006-03-17 08:55 pm (UTC)Most of the kids out there, I don't *WANT* my kid socializing with.
Most people's response to this is something along the lines of, "But how will they learn to deal with people who are different/mean/break the rules/whatever thing it is you're objecting to? How will they learn that sometimes life isn't fair and people aren't nice and well-behaved?"
They see this as a valid argument, bc, indeed, some people are mean, etc., and certainly you wouldn't want that to come as a big shock to your kids.
But, come on...the world, esp the media, is inundated with mean, non-well-behaved rule breakers. A lot of humor, esp kid humor, is based on this idea. How could it possibly come as a shock?
I don't think you need to teach your kids to understand or deal with what the world is already full of--they'll absorb it on their own. Much more important to teach them the harder lessons that aren't so obvious. And THAT, you can say to the doubters, is how they will learn to deal w/ the meanness out there: by countering it with their own niceness.
Here's an analogy I bet you'd never thought to hear me use: Christ didn't say to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile bc he was a big wuss with no idea how mean the world could be. He said it bc he knew sometimes the only way to defeat evil is to confound it with goodness. Confusion to the enemy!