Subject:
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Re: Lego(r) Master Maniac designation?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Wed, 30 Dec 1998 15:59:25 GMT
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Viewed:
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909 times
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Moz (Chris Moseley) wrote in message ...
>
> Matthew Verdier wrote in message ...
> > Personally, I think it is unhealthy to isolate your children from the • world.
> > Too much isolation leaves them unprepared to make the hard choices they • are
> > going to have to make throughout the course of their lives.
>
>
> Think it through, Matthew. Do you want to shield your children from the
> world... of paedophilia? of addictive drugs? of bungie jumping? At what
> point do you personally think it's reasonable to limit a child's access
> to the world at its seamiest?
>
> Personally I'd be thrilled tho have my kids grow up utterly unaware that
> there are people in the world who habitually use profanity. Language is
> a tool, and should be used with respect. And in a place like this I think
> we should definitely encourage a high standard of language, and not just
> in avoiding expletives. Spelling, grammar, and even logic have a place
> here, IMO
Ok, here we go. I don't have any kids. (Ducking to protect myself from the
legions of people who are going to tackle me for spouting opinions I have no
right to because I have no kids). My sister Sara has a three year old
Daughter who is a wonderful child. I would do anything to make sure she had
a good life and nothing bad happened to her. But I also realize that I am
not solely responsible for raising and protecting her. At this age it is
necessary to limit the choices she can make to protect her. Samantha
doesn't understand that driving her little Barbie jeep in the street is
dangerous unless mom and dad are right there to make sure there is no
traffic (there are no sidewalks where they live). So it is their job to
make sure she never has unsupervised time when she could get in that jeep
and end up in the street with traffic. By the same token, there is an
almost infinite number of decisions that they should make for her at this
point in her life to keep her safe. The problem is she isn't going to be 3
for ever. As she gets older they have to hope that they have instilled good
values and judgment in her to make these decisions for herself.
There are times in a child's life when it is proper to shield them from
dangers, and times when it is proper to prepare them for dangers. At this
age, she should have absolutely no unsupervised access to the internet [1]
or cable TV. As far as drugs and pedophiles go, I can only hope she never
has any encounters with either. At this age she can be shielded, but in a
few short years she is going to have to be able to realize the dangers of
drugs and know that there are dangerous people in the world that she needs
to protect herself from. The only way to do that is have an honest
discussion that is appropriate for her age that prepares her to deal with
these potential dangers in the world.
By the time Samantha is 18, she needs to be fully prepared to make every
decision in her life. This means she should realize that she can have a
very happy life or a miserable one based on the decisions she makes.
Personally, I think she is well on her way to having a very good life.
[1] She has her own computer and likes to use it. Her dad is a computer
consultant and developer and her mom is a medical transcriptionist. They
both work at home so she sees people using computers all the time. Now she
doesn't have access to the internet at all, but has a fairly extensive set
of kiddie software designed for young children. She also has an oversized
mouse designed for toddlers and a children's simplified version of windows.
She is pretty good using her computer too.
Matthew Verdier
"You can't just say you're King because some watery tart threw a sword at
you"
Dennis, 700 AD
http://www.GeoCities.com/CapeCanaveral/2738/mjvlego.html
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Lego(r) Master Maniac designation?
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| Matthew Verdier wrote in message ... (...) Think it through, Matthew. Do you want to shield your children from the world... of paedophilia? of addictive drugs? of bungie jumping? At what point do you personally think it's reasonable to limit a (...) (25 years ago, 30-Dec-98, to lugnet.general)
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