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I just thought that I would salute you by sending some thoughts to you<VBG>....It gives me a hoot when people put the issue as one of one's children belonging to us, even as they make ringing endorsements of autonomy and whatnot. Unless one is rich, a good deal of one's life as a parent is spent as one's child's servant. We feed them, change their diapers, chauffeur them, put up with their antics. We are held to account if they behave disruptively, or fail to do their homework. They are our responsibility. If they "belong to society", let society pick them up when they miss the school bus, or clean up their vomit when they are ill. If they "belong to themselves", let them get a job. They are our kids, not as possessions, but as charges. Our primary duty in this is to be people they can count on, to be reliable, to take care of them. Part of taking care of them is to try and inculcate decency, to encourage habits that will help them to get along in the world, and to discourage habits that are self- destructive and unnecessarily offensive to those around them. If we do not do these things as well, we are shirkers........ |
