Parental Supervision

While I'm sure everyone would like to hear details of my trials and tribulations growing up, we have established that this forum isn't meant to bore my loyal fans with whiny, 'woe is me', nonsense. Look everyone has a story about perseverance, growing pains, and 'discovering' themselves, my point is who cares? If there is some great insight, I might be willing to listen but on the whole, the masses largely regress to the mean.

Some thoughts on parenting styles- parents basically have two options:

1. Hands-off: do what you want as long as the outcomes are acceptable
2. Hands-on: do what we want and the outcomes better be acceptable

Like most things, I believe a combination is probably the best. The problem with parents who establish totalitarian regimes is that they don't understand the core of basic human psychology: curiosity. Think about it, in wisdom literature, the first fable of all time is about the weakness of man in desiring that which is forbidden. That is the first thing 'God' wanted us to understand, humans are curious. Please note all religions, commandments, and fatwas came later. So my sage advice for parents, don't insulate your kids from understanding the world i.e. don't do this, don't do that, this is bad, that is wrong, you essentially create artificial desire and pique their curiosity. Your kids will most likely end up indulging in the very things you desperately wanted them to avoid. In the end it becomes a matter of trust- totalitarian regimes have marginal trust in their subjects, hence the top-down heavy handed approach to parenting.

Wouldn't a better approach be for children to make informed choices without living in a state of fear? I said earlier most things regress to the mean, and that holds true for choices as well. Final thoughts: Don't impose your choices on your kids. Establish trust and in the end they'll do the right thing. Hopefully :)