A DOOR-TO-DOOR salesman knocks on a door and a five-year-old boy opens the door, holding a can of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The little boy takes a sip of the beer then a little smoke on the cigarette. “Can I help you?” asks the boy. The door-to-door salesman, still in shock, asks the little boy: “Are ... are ... are your parents home please?”
The little boy smiles and replies “What do you think?”
I’m sure this story isn’t true, but it’s probably fair to say that kids today, like in “our” day, get away with a lot more than their parents know about.
Of course, it’s impossible to get away with less than your parents know about, but I think some parents let their kids get away with more than other parents.
Although thousands call me “Father” I have no children, so I employed the services of someone who is an excellent parent and an excellent human being (I think the two go hand in hand) to edit and improve these musings.
Parenting has never been “easy” but they tell me that no book or even YouTube video can prepare you for the real thing, and of course, everybody starts as an amateur.
Many parents I know struggle with the current idea that to be a good parent, you have to be their friend first and their parent second. Is that possible?
Some parents blame television and the internet and I tend to agree.
Programs or adverts try to tell us what to wear, eat, look like, talk and basically what to believe about a whole range of subjects.
Television preaches with more passion than any priest I know.
Children are being taken advantage of from the zealous preaching of Australian television’s doctrines.
Parents today must battle against negative influences on their children that their grandparents and great grandparents never had to fight.
Children are very vulnerable in their ability to be influenced by those around them; they pick up on things quickly and try to be the “cool guy” to “fit in”.
As a parent, one must be understanding that children must live in today, but be wise enough to identify what can lead them into troubled lives.
While parents will rightfully blame television as a corrupter of morals, it’s parents that allow children to have televisions in their bedrooms, where there is no supervision and they can view programs where concepts are inappropriate.
Nobody doubts that even careless parents love their children.
And look at how passionately some parents get behind their children’s sport and only because it is their child and every parent wants to see their child win. Parenting is a great privilege that is a gift from above. It is a vocation from God.
Just as the priesthood is a full-time vocation, so is parenting.
Parenting consists of individual understanding of each child, their strengths, their weaknesses, and guide them with appropriate guidance and love. Guidance must always be given in love, to better and strengthen the individual to face the world with courage and fearlessness.
If it is true that children are the product of their parents, and if it is true that the youth are our future, then it is also true that parents are the present, and to some extent, our future hangs on what they do now in the present.
FATHER BRENDAN
Twitter: @frbrendanelee