I think back and give you a Point in which I will compare this post to. 1993 was my grade 11 year of high School at this time a lot of the items we have today were just as available as today, but there was something different. I am talking about our Parents, which had a backbone and Knew how to either Say no or enforce the fact to work for Something.
I don't want to Come across As prudish As I Am far from it; I had what I thought was a serious relationship and sex at 15 years old, smoked from then until I was 33. I experimented with drugs in high school, nothing too serious if you think of the Mainstream drugs. I Was Completely Successful at Keeping everything other than the smoking from my Parents because I Was the good quiet child. I regret none
of this but and going back would probably do it all again, I just feel that I was too young to really make those decisions at the time.
Everywhere I turn today I see a Child younger than 16 years old (which here is the age a Child Can legally start working and driving) with items like; Cell Phones, Cigarettes, liquor... I here them talking in Public with no shame whatsoever. I here what they plan on doing to their girlfriend sexually, the beating they were going to give or receive and how disrespectful they are to their Caregivers. All of this without a hint of responsibility in the air. I am luckily at a Point in my life that our daughter is too young at seven to deal with a lot of these problems, but the future this unknown Scares the hell out of me.
I write this post more to bring to light what we all must be seeing and pose a few questions to get your view on the outlook for the future. My last Post which is published at PTPA's website is more about our Kids when they are younger, what about when they are Past that Point. How old is old enough? What will you do to tryvand keep your children on the straight and narrow? If your Comfortable enough feel free to share your story In the comments...
I raised my 2 daughters and now we have adopted 1 grandchild and another is living with us. No one is a perfect parent. We gave my adult daughters everything we could but we also taught them to work hard. My youngest adult daughter got into major trouble with the law and is now rebuilding her life living with us. She always worked until she got involved in some terrible drugs. My granddaughters can be very trying. I am 50 and hubby is 72 so it is a big change for us. We had the first granddaughter since she was little and so far she is great in school, but has trouble with her mouth. The next granddaughter has lived so different we had to teach her some basic manners and reinforce how important school is. We take it day by day and deal with issues as the come up. I have always concentrated on children having confidence and giving them the right tools to make the right choice. As they get older they are the ones that have to decide how to live and without some basics they will not be the person they should be.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing Laura, sometimes it's nice to have a place to just let go of a story to vent in an unusual place. It definitely sounds like you have had your hands full and still going through a lot but it also sound like you are doing what you can and keeping your head on straight. If you have not already done so, a great parenting site where people help each other out answer questions on things they may have an issue with is PTPA.com, I highly recommend it. :-)
Delete