Sadje has asked another excellent question.
This week my question is;
Do you think how we turn out is in our control?
My answer is a resounding “yes” and “no”.
We are individually predisposed to our own variety of reactions to Life’s litany of experiences.
The quiet introspective child will respond differently from the impulsive risk-taking child to the same (or similar) situations.
Neither is better equipped than the other, but their ‘journeys’ will obviously take different ‘paths’.
So, in that sense, we are each ‘slaves’ to our inborn tendencies.
Yet, in each situation we also have the capacity to make choices. Sometimes they are choices that are the ‘lesser of two evils’ and sometimes they are choices according to values and goals.
What makes life even more of a gambit is that none of us get to become adults without passing through the “tempest time” of being a teenager.
Gosh! It’s hard to watch. So much of their future successes depend on making ‘wise’ decisions during a time when their own wisdom is in low supply.
We can appeal to them but no longer have much influence on them. This is why we call the preteens, the “formative years”. Their values and decision-making skills are already formed by our involved parenting.
{A short opinion rant is coming. Viewers are advised to use discretion. LOL }
Tell me again about the modern concept of “free range parenting”?!
Offering little guidance or instruction to young children isn’t just “lazy”, it’s cruel and amounts to criminal neglect offering no compassion for their futures. It also makes our entire society and culture vulnerable to unscrupulous influences.
Shame on those who fail to guide their children! [Yes… I lost my cool. Sometimes there are topics that require it. đ ]
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