Listen now | The mental health industry in America has been promoting socialist (egalitarian) parenting since the late 1960s. Has it worked? No. Does the mental health industry keep right on promoting it? Yes, proving that they have a collective mental health disorder.
John, I certainly have said the same things from time to time with my constituents - especially about leadership & self-governance. I asked my wife to think differently about our boys when my first son turned 2: a son will not be allowed to carry a tote bag (lol) and most certainly ought never to have playdates. If anyone asks, our son will hang out with their son - ha. My dad of course would have said, "If you want to play with girls, I'll buy you a dress." lol. I often think that the modern phenomenon of parents arranging playdates is very much related to FEAR. Parents fear their children choosing the wrong types of friends. Parents fear sending their child 2 doors down to see if "Johnny can play" because Johnny's stay at home dad may be a perv. And what about the fear the parent holds that someone will abduct that child on the way to Johnny's. I remember when Daniel J. Travonti played John Walsh in the made for TV movie, Adam. In 1983, there were only so many channels and USA tuned into that like no other show, and I remember the consequences. The next summer, parents in my town had all their kids fingerprinted. I think the culture changed dramatically at that moment. So, are contemporary parents too afraid? Yes. At the same time, I get it; they are playing the cards they've been dealt - to a degree. The part I don't like that is that parents will not let their children play with all kinds of kids; they'll instead choose programs. My mom used to make me invite a certain boy over who had no friends. Today, moms will enroll a kid in chess club.
Thank you, Ted. Your comments are right on, spot on, and so on. Today's parents, bless their hearts, are wound as tight as snare drums with performance anxiety. You and I are members of the last generation of kids who learned how to deal with freedom, which, as you well know, is the ONLY viable means of confronting and accepting the challenge of full self-responsibility. Post-1960s "parenting" is a most paradoxical beast. Keep on rockin' in the free world, brother.
John, I certainly have said the same things from time to time with my constituents - especially about leadership & self-governance. I asked my wife to think differently about our boys when my first son turned 2: a son will not be allowed to carry a tote bag (lol) and most certainly ought never to have playdates. If anyone asks, our son will hang out with their son - ha. My dad of course would have said, "If you want to play with girls, I'll buy you a dress." lol. I often think that the modern phenomenon of parents arranging playdates is very much related to FEAR. Parents fear their children choosing the wrong types of friends. Parents fear sending their child 2 doors down to see if "Johnny can play" because Johnny's stay at home dad may be a perv. And what about the fear the parent holds that someone will abduct that child on the way to Johnny's. I remember when Daniel J. Travonti played John Walsh in the made for TV movie, Adam. In 1983, there were only so many channels and USA tuned into that like no other show, and I remember the consequences. The next summer, parents in my town had all their kids fingerprinted. I think the culture changed dramatically at that moment. So, are contemporary parents too afraid? Yes. At the same time, I get it; they are playing the cards they've been dealt - to a degree. The part I don't like that is that parents will not let their children play with all kinds of kids; they'll instead choose programs. My mom used to make me invite a certain boy over who had no friends. Today, moms will enroll a kid in chess club.
Thank you, Ted. Your comments are right on, spot on, and so on. Today's parents, bless their hearts, are wound as tight as snare drums with performance anxiety. You and I are members of the last generation of kids who learned how to deal with freedom, which, as you well know, is the ONLY viable means of confronting and accepting the challenge of full self-responsibility. Post-1960s "parenting" is a most paradoxical beast. Keep on rockin' in the free world, brother.