I'm really tired of this discussion, or discussions exactly like it. 100 responses saying that kids should be trusted because trust helps them develop responsiblity. 100 responses saying that they're my kids it's my responsiblity to know everything they do. Other people saying that kids can get into anything no matter what anyway so why not trust them. More people saying everything that kids get into is inherently good for them provided that you as a parent have provided them with a good foundation to understand and interpret what they find in a positive way.
The fact is that people need to realize they don't have control over kids. No, I am NOT saying they can't make kids do things or prevent their kids from being exposed to "evil" or negative things. Because parents actually can do that somewhat. What I'm saying is that people need to realize that they don't actually have control over their kids in terms of who their kids become. You cannot make your child a good person. You can't force them into viewing things the way that you do and you certainly can't assume responsibility for your child's life. We've seen restrictive parents have wild kids and we've seen them have straight-laced kids. Just like we've all seen horrible parents have great kids and horrible parents have criminal kids. Not like we have any place to judge anyway. At some point your kid has responsibility for his or her own life. And it's not at like 25 like some parents want to believe, it's actually pretty young. Certainly my parents influenced me, but who I am is because I decided this is the person I want to be.
Our jobs as parents are just to put our kids in a position where they can make a good desicion. Expose them. But certainly don't just pick one style of parenting and follow it religiously. sometimes kids should be trusted, sometimes they should be given freedom. At the very least, you gotta let them masturbate. *shrugs*
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I'm really tired of this discussion, or discussions exactly like it. 100 responses saying that kids should be trusted because trust helps them develop responsiblity. 100 responses saying that they're my kids it's my responsiblity to know everything they do. Other people saying that kids can get into anything no matter what anyway so why not trust them. More people saying everything that kids get into is inherently good for them provided that you as a parent have provided them with a good foundation to understand and interpret what they find in a positive way. The fact is that people need to realize they don't have control over kids. No, I am NOT saying they can't make kids do things or prevent their kids from being exposed to "evil" or negative things. Because parents actually can do that somewhat. What I'm saying is that people need to realize that they don't actually have control over their kids in terms of who their kids become. You cannot make your child a good person. You can't force them into viewing things the way that you do and you certainly can't assume responsibility for your child's life. We've seen restrictive parents have wild kids and we've seen them have straight-laced kids. Just like we've all seen horrible parents have great kids and horrible parents have criminal kids. Not like we have any place to judge anyway. At some point your kid has responsibility for his or her own life. And it's not at like 25 like some parents want to believe, it's actually pretty young. Certainly my parents influenced me, but who I am is because I decided this is the person I want to be. Our jobs as parents are just to put our kids in a position where they can make a good desicion. Expose them. But certainly don't just pick one style of parenting and follow it religiously. sometimes kids should be trusted, sometimes they should be given freedom. At the very least, you gotta let them masturbate. *shrugs*