Sep 14
Weekly column: children should be not seen and not heard
Cats: slack woman|I’m afraid I don’t agree with the Victorian notion that children should be seen and not heard.
By the end of the summer, I’m all about having them not seen and not heard for a good chunk of the day.
And even though it isn’t politically correct to say things like this, most parents - and non parents for that matter - feel the same way.
The column is fresh off the presses. Go here to see.
September 14th, 2007 at 4:22 am
Hi Gail,
As usual, I really enjoyed your column. No…I loved it!! How many parents speak what they truly feel…and to the public at large??
Oh, yeah I can say that NOW. I am a grandmother and have vowed to leave the guilt..and spoiling?? behind me.That’s true..you do get it right by the time you are a grandmother. LOL
We do the best we can, some times kids do and say things in a split second and some times we are..cranky. That does not make us bad, that makes us human. I wish I would have seen this column 25 years ago. I am the Queen of guilt who just recently left it behind me.What a waste..but you do keep on learning new things in the golden years.We certainly were not raised on guilt and the words’Go out and play ‘were as common as eating.
Take care Gail and keep those columns coming.
Dolores
The ungifted typist
(This is also true..my yearbook says so…and I quote
Goal: To become the fastest two finger typist in town!
A goal which I am proud to say I have accomplished.
September 14th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Unfortunately, we can’t let our kids go out and play like we used to. I would roam for hours and my mother didn’t know where I was most of the time. Now we are afraid that some weirdo will snatch our kids from the street, so we need to keep them at arms length.
That being said, I also enjoy long stretches of time with no kids around. Usually on the first day of school, after the buses have left, I will sit in the living room and enjoy the silence. I enter an almost trancelike state as I enjoy the quiet of the house.
I also enjoy that for the most part when they are home they amuse themselves and don’t need me to constantly entertain them.
Sometimes I feel guilty that they don’t eat enough vegetables and watch too much TV, but then I remember that I was the same way as a kid & I turned out OK - my kids are on the right path…
September 16th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I’m lucky. My cats are often seen, but usually sleeping. However, one of them always loves to be heard about 45 minutes before the alarm goes off.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:03 am
It is pretty strange. It seems that the ‘better’ parents get, the more messed up their kids are.
I just read a speculative article in the paper that suggested that by being overly protective we are denying our children important social experiences that they will need to get by once in the rat race.
I too was wrapped in burlap and sent out of the house. Who wants to be around their parents anyway?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Delores, thanks.
H&P, I know. We live in a different world but Dick is right. The dangers are no greater. It’s our perceptions of the dangers.
Dick, I was never a very good parent. You know that.