A Child's Pain
You know what the hardest part of having a child is? Watching your child process through a hurt exactly as you did when you were their age. It's mind boggling. My 8 1/2 year old son has been having terrible issues with his long time buddies across the street. They've known each other all their lives, literally, since they each were born. There is the oldest, who is 11, and then the second son who is 9... and then there is my son who is 8 1/2.
Through the years I've watched these other two boys change, and not for the better. I've watched a darkness, a brooding anger, well up in them. They are rude children... never a please, thank-you, mam, or sir. EVER. They seem to look at the world around them with a "You owe ME" vision. And I can tell you the main source for it -- but I best not get into that here. Let's just say the energy is very non-social, introverted, no friends, and one that seems to just wallow in self-imposed and chosen aloneness and bitterness. Sad. Tragic. But chosen! And now another generation seems to be heading down that path. Both parents seem oblivious to it. Nothing I can do about it.
It came to a head this week, and at the end of it all, I just said "ENOUGH" -- and the decision was made that they just wouldn't play together. I have no other choice. I can't sit back and watch that same weird circle of childhood hurt continue with another generation, and this time my son, and not do something. I'm not sure how it's all going to turn out either; I just know we all needed a break from the daily, draining, drama!!!
I'm glad that my son is a caring, thoughtful, loving child. This is part of the reason why we decided to homeschool. So that we could help to mold the foundation of a child that will grow into a man. I didn't want public school, and all that goes along with that, shaping him. I truly think we've been doing a good job too. He has a really strong foundation of what is right and what is wrong, and how to treat other people. He has his own views, opinions, and feelings on topics too. Yes --- I think we're doing a good job. I mean, after all, there isn't an instruction manual that comes with them at birth!!!
A few quotes to close with:
Through the years I've watched these other two boys change, and not for the better. I've watched a darkness, a brooding anger, well up in them. They are rude children... never a please, thank-you, mam, or sir. EVER. They seem to look at the world around them with a "You owe ME" vision. And I can tell you the main source for it -- but I best not get into that here. Let's just say the energy is very non-social, introverted, no friends, and one that seems to just wallow in self-imposed and chosen aloneness and bitterness. Sad. Tragic. But chosen! And now another generation seems to be heading down that path. Both parents seem oblivious to it. Nothing I can do about it.
It came to a head this week, and at the end of it all, I just said "ENOUGH" -- and the decision was made that they just wouldn't play together. I have no other choice. I can't sit back and watch that same weird circle of childhood hurt continue with another generation, and this time my son, and not do something. I'm not sure how it's all going to turn out either; I just know we all needed a break from the daily, draining, drama!!!
I'm glad that my son is a caring, thoughtful, loving child. This is part of the reason why we decided to homeschool. So that we could help to mold the foundation of a child that will grow into a man. I didn't want public school, and all that goes along with that, shaping him. I truly think we've been doing a good job too. He has a really strong foundation of what is right and what is wrong, and how to treat other people. He has his own views, opinions, and feelings on topics too. Yes --- I think we're doing a good job. I mean, after all, there isn't an instruction manual that comes with them at birth!!!
A few quotes to close with:
"Childhood is the fiery furnace in which we are melted down to essentials and that essential shaped for good." ~ Katherine Anne Porter
"What we remember from childhood we remember forever - permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen." ~ Cynthia Ozick
"The older I grow the more earnestly I feel that the few joys of childhood are the best that life has to give." ~ Ellen Glasgow
posted by Kestrel | 9:22 AM
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