parenthood

THE ART OF PARENTING

TRIAL WITH ERROR

When you first learned to skate or to ride your bike you must remember that it took a while to "get the hang of it". you were a little wobbly at first and (i fell on my bum lots) did you? Ay i thought so! See every thing that kids do is a learning experience and when there lots of learning there's lot's of mistakes. We should be issued a card that says:

THE BEARER OF THIS CARD IS ENTITLED TO 1 TRILLION EXPERIENCES WITHOUT PUNISHMENT ISSUED AT BIRTH RENEWABLE ANY TIME

And a caution tag:

N caution N THE DUTY OF EVERY CHILD IS TO MAKE AS MANY MISTAKES AS POSSIBLE

Now, i'm going to drop a bomb shell... ah.... maybe you should stand up for this.........did you know that mistakes don't exist. NAW they really don't. See, this thing we've been trained,
(and i do mean trained just like a dog is taught to heel) to call mistakes and think are bad, really are learning experiences. Their the lessons in our life that give us information on what not to do next time. Now you could teach kids to learn from the experiences and become smarter so we don't have to make the same errors in judgment over and over, or you can make us feel bad about all the horrible mistakes were going to make and then we can feel ashamed because were not perfect and then we can wallow in my guilt for not measuring up and give up caring cause it doesn't matter, cause we'll never live up to perfect expectations anyway. See if Thomas Edison didn't believe in making errors in judgment we might still be in the dark. He attempted 1000 variations of the light bulb before he had success. now ain't that a thought. 1000 times on the same thing. See and I've only broken fifty glasses, i've got a long way to go hhehehe......so let us little people learn, let us accept responsibility for our actions but don't create false results just to punish me for doing something you decide you don't like. if i run away in a park teach me about getting lost and what i need to now if that happens don't just get mad and yell at me and make me stand by you cause your punishing me teach me so i can learn .

another warning label:

TO ALL NEW PARENTS BELOW YOU WILL FIND A LIST OF DUTIES YOU ARE REQUIRED TO PERFORM AS PARENTS THESE DUTIES MUST BE FULFILLED TO YOUR UTMOST CAPABILITIES AND THESE DUTIES ONLY. (FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL CAUSE YOU UNTOLD MISERY)

TO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO BECOME THEIR OWN PARENT.
TO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN HOW TO THINK (NOT WHAT TO THINK)

Then after you teach me something let me go into the world and try it out be there for me to help me if i need it. But let me learn. Remember i go out with the knowledge you teach me, so the student will only be as good as the teacher and if you teach me well you can expect that i will do well. It is also important that you teach me how to think about situations, how to evaluate what is going on around me. if you only teach me what you think instead of how to think then how will i ever survive in the world by myself, now a simple way to teach me to think is to get me to ask questions and if your listening to me and haven't tuned me out, or scared me, or shamed me into being silent, you know i can ask lots of questions J. That's all their is to it, and if you let me ask questions and teach me how to find the answers pretty soon there won't be as many. maybe you'll start to miss them. and if you don't waste your energy getting mad at me for the errors in judgment and help me learn we will have way more time to be happy.