Settle down, kids
I am a big fan of kids. As anyone who is reading my stuff can tell. Watching kids discover the world is fascinating to me. A motivating factor in watching the brothers-paladin discover the Here-After? Maybe?
Anyway, I know it is cliché, but they really are the future. So the time we spend on their growth when they are young pays a very noticeable dividend when they grow.
I say this often, “Too many people play checkers, not enough play chess.”
Not enough parents think of long-term consequences of what they allow their kids to do/get away with. Or worse yet, how they squash childhood inclinations and force kids to grow up too quickly.
Not you, my fair readers of course, I know you all parent so well that Dr. Spock would weep with joy at the level of parenting astuteness you display. RIP Dr. Spock. Live long and prosper.
When my wife and I take our kids to parks/play areas/that part of the alley that is “safe” enough. We often see extremes when it comes to parenting. Completely disengaged parents, ones who barely look up from their phones to make sure their precious angels haven’t strung up another kid by the chains on the swing set. Or, the type that is hovering over their kids to such a great degree there is no chance their precious nugget accidentally falls four inches down a soft-molded giraffe slide and gets a boo-boo on their widdle kneesies.
Both kids are not allowed to be kids. Creating adults that will not know how to act in civilized society. They will either always expect someone to be there to catch them if they fall, becoming too dependent on others. Or they won't understand how their actions impact those around them metaphorically choking their coworkers on TPS reports.
Am I a perfect parent? Not by any metric. My oldest still refuses to eat beans - a story for a different day.
What I am, is a parent that thinks a lot about my kids’ futures, in exhausting detail, on what the end result of what I am doing, or not doing, will be.
Maybe they’ll fall off a plastic long-necked hoofed mammal here or there; but when they land a fancy, upscale job in the big city, one able to take care of their mother and me, who will be laughing?
Well, I will be. Life’s too short to be that serious.
