“Let us try to follow that example with our own children. If we want to raise grownups, there is no better education than letting them be around grown up conversation, and there is no safer place for them to make their first forays (and stumbles) in that world than the seat right next to us.” – Daily Dad
As parents, it’s amazing how much we try to shelter our kids from the realities of the world… We do everything in our power to make them believe we are living inside the bubble of a Disney movie, and that’s just how this precious little world of flying pigs and dancing unicorns work…
We do our best to shelter the kids from any sort of atrocities that occur on a daily basis around the globe and even more so in our own home…
Then, as the kids get older they become exposed to the reality that we don’t actually live in Pleasantville and this isn’t the f*cking Truman Show…
They figure out that there are sick & bad people out in the REAL world that do evil shit. Many times this reality whacks these kids HARD in the face and leads to all sorts of fears, insecurities & anxiety…
So what are we as parents supposed to do? 🤷♂️
It’s actually pretty simple…
Kids dramatically and emotionally react to just about every situation they encounter…
They react with their feelings and are driven by their impulses…
Think of them as the anti-Stoic…
Knowing this, the more we try to hide from them the worse off their reaction will be when they are eventually exposed to the “real world.”
For fun’s sake, let’s think of kids as poop balloons. 💩🎈
If we fill the balloons up with too much poop all at once, the balloons will pop and leave a gigantic pile of poop for us adults to clean up…
Yet, if we figure out a way to flow a slow & steady stream of poopie into the balloon, the balloon will appropriately and proportionately expand in all directions… Eventually, the balloon will take in all the poop but learn how to adapt on its own without exploding.
Bottom Line: The kids will be able to handle their shit, but we need to learn how to feed it to them. 😋
-EB