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- cross-posted to:
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Not a parent but I read this and have my personal opinions, curious what others think about it.
Not a parent but I read this and have my personal opinions, curious what others think about it.
I’m on the fence. It’s a pretty subjective topic no? Public spaces will always have conflict due to many people have many preferences.
I teach kids, and a lesson I have with them is on “context”.
The game of tag, is it good or bad?
Well, on the playground it is good, really fun actually!
But in music class or at the library? It’s really bad.
The game didn’t change, the context did. Same goes with parenting imo. In fact I’d go so far as to say that teaching your kids to be considerate of the spaces they are in is a good thing.
I grew up with my mom telling us to keep our hands behind our back when going into an antique store or to be polite at the dinner table, and I was always invited to dinners and nice places by my friends parents because they knew I’d behave.
Going off of this, If you never give your kids the chance to exist independently in public spaces (and appropriately discipline them/ teach them) they’ll grow up without really learning this well.
I can’t believe how many kids (high school) these days will call their parents to help them out of any uncertain task in a public space rather than try to figure it out on their own.
Recent example was I was taking a kid to the customer service desk on a trip I was chaperoning because they forgot their pass, and they were so lost about what to do and were calling their parents for help. I had to tell them relax, we’ll just explain the problem to the person at the desk and see what they say. And he could barely do that.
I imagine that if you as a kid had the freedom to explore museums and stuff semi-independently as a 10 year old but also under supervision, they would have so much more confidence in public spaces on their own later.
There is a difference between disciplining and helicoptering.
I guess including conflict of people trying to take your kids and ransom them.