...I really have no strong opinions!
Yeah, I can tell. :-)
Kids do need the full-time interest of both parents, for sure; but many parents find it easier to give kids what they want (stuff) rather than what they need (time for playing, teaching, listening, discipline, direction). Parents need to find other parents and schools who will support them in this kind of parenting, because they will be battling against their bosses (gotta work late to get that promotion or even keep the job), desire for a bigger house in nicer neighborhood, and the fear that one's brain has vegetated (small children, however loved, are no substitute for adult conversation on more stimulating topics than Pokemon.). In a way, it does "take a village" - remember when a mother found out her kid got into mischief before he even got home, because of the neighborhood grapevine? - but it got perverted into the idea that the village could do a better job than the parents.
Another reason we chose the school we did was their emphasis on development of the whole child - academic and social. Continual teasing, or bullying, for example, is not tolerated, and the child is told that we don't do that, and shown a better way to relate if needed. They, will not, however, suspend a 6 year old and send him for psychological evaluation if he points his finger at a friend and goes "bang-bang" because, thank God, they don't have a "zero-tolerance" policy on "violence" but a common-sense, down to earth approach on reproving children for misbehavior. This is hard to find in public schools. |
