Sunday, January 23, 2011

To Cut or Not To Cut

This is one of the questions my friend humorously offers up for comment from her blogosphere friends. She writes about circumcision, breastfeeding in public and many other issues that affect parents of young children today. (Read her LOL column at TheCrazyBabyMama.com.)

Other friends of mine are dealing with teenage issues - drugs, sex, and college choices are topics of recent discussion. Whether or not to get your teenager an iPhone or laptop. Video games. Facebook. Privacy (the internet kind). Some topics change over the years, and some topics (amazingly) stay the same, but the truth is that there are always going to be numerous parenting issues for discussion and decision.

Its easier when your children are small because you make the decision and your kids just have to live with the decisions you make. Whether or not to live in the U.S. or in Israel. At what age to send your toddler to preschool. Circumcision or foreskin intact. Bassinets/cribs/beds/sleeping in the parents' bed. Bedtime and bedtime rituals. (This last one seems to be a re-curring theme on "The Nanny" TV show. Not that I've ever watched it or anything.)

It becomes more difficult with pre-teens and teenagers. How to monitor their internet usage. When to let them start dating. Driving privileges. Grades. Clothing that is acceptable (or not) to wear in public. The friends they choose to hang out with. How much time they spend on the phone/internet.

Life in today's world is complicated, and parents cannot be with their children all of the time to oversee their children's lives. I think the most difficult decision is when to hold firm on a parental decision....and when to let your child make his/her own decision. And, even harder.....to let your child make mistakes. Because the only path to true adulthood is via making our own decisions....and by making, and learning from, our own mistakes.

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