Priinces and Priincesses,
How do you rear your children?
This question was asked yesterday by a staff of the Nation more times than I care to recount. Well, not with that very wording, because at the risk of stating the obvious, it sounds more like you laid eggs and hatched them into baby chickens, rather than gave birth to a proper human. And raising kids is nothing like chicken farming, I should think.
Typically, as parents, we love our children a lot - most of them, anyway, because let's face it, some kids are ... well ... y'know - and we often try to preserve their childhood innocence for as long as possible. But nothing lasts forever, and sooner or later, kids grow up, and force us to love them a little less for many valid reasons. They start to rebel, exemplarily, because they think they're older and wiser when they're really still stupid. Mostly naive, yes, but often downright stupid, too.
Raising your first child can be quite the challenge - what with you being inexperienced and all - but the good news is, it does NOT get any easier with kids numbers 2, 3 and so on. (Did I say good news? Oh well, you swore the for better, for worse oath, did you not?) Every child is unique, and the parenting style that worked for Tom may not necessarily be what's best for Dick or Harry. Because of this, 50% of the time, no parent knows EXACTLY what they're doing! (So you see, we're all products of trial and error, sadly.) Still, as you watch your child grow over the years, one question looms your mind - 'When is it time to let go?'
Yes, we all want our kids to make better choices than we did; and we try to guide them towards what we know to be the right path based off of our own experiences; and we this, and we that, and we blah blah blah, but eventually, we will have to let them the freedom to be their own selves and lead their own lives. When is it the right time to do this? And just as importantly, how do you know? Granted, kids mature at different rates physically, emotionally, intellectually etc., but it would be wrong (wont it?) to allow 16 year olds unrestrained freedom because they've proven to be wiser than the average 16ner. Similarly, that a person's clocked 18 or 22 (whichever is the age marking adulthood in your region) doesn't always mean they're ready to be adults either. So, at what age is it time to let go as a parent, in the context described above? This was a heated debate amongst the staff yesterday, and we thought to hear your take on the subject matter.
Let us know in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe!
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