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mamabearCali wrote:"Teaching a child that you can't trust police, that the military is not doing anything worthwhile, and other generalizations will unfortunately poison them into the belief that they are all bad."


As opposed to teaching them that you can always trust the police and should always tell the police everything? That is hardly advisable. I do not teach them to hate the police or to be disrespectful, but if they think the police man is "mad" at them (the only way a 8 year old understands trouble) that they are to be quiet, still, and ask for me and my husband. Perhaps all you have is officer friendly where you live...that is great...but that is not the case in many places.

Not sure where you got that about the military. I think our military men are our best and brightest. I also think they are being set up for murder by the rules of engagement in Afghanistan and have routinely been sacrificed so that a politician can get points. Not ok by me. I hate politicians and distrust them entirely. I love our fighting men.

I don't trust and "hope" that people will do the right thing anymore. I know at least three people who have cooled their heels in jail because they "hoped" someone would do the right thing. Instead someone got a burr in their bonnet and chose to nail them to the wall because a law was clumsily worded and they could do so. Watching my friends get abused by the system and one of them lose their conceal carry permit because they transferred a gun from their glove box to their holster where a school bus could see it (not on school grounds) has made me jaded.

You live in TX, things are better still there the last time I was there (two years ago). Things are much worse elsewhere.

mamabearCali wrote:

RoyGBiv wrote: It's an incredibly fine line to teach young children to walk. Follow the rules, but be suspect of everything and everyone, lest you fall on the wrong side of some authority looking to make an example of you or enforce some arbitrary flypaper rule with the zeal of a murder attempt. You are not alone in walking that line.

I recall an instance where my child was involved in an altercation he did not start, tried to avoid, in fact. Out of fear of "being in trouble" he was overzealous in taking responsibility for what happened. When the facts were fully revealed he and I sat with the authority figure while he watched me give a lesson in right and wrong, enforcement of rules that punish victims for self defense and an admonishment that if the school expects my child to take a beating to avoid similar situations in the future, they should also expect to be subject to civil and criminal liability for their complicity that results in any injury to my child.

Then I spent weeks (in small doses) trying to explain to my young child how to walk that line. What it boiled down to is, "stay to the facts, not the feelings, and call me immediately". Unfortunately, that is the world we live in today.

Unfortunately we must sometimes still put our trust in fellow man and hope that they will do the right thing. Teaching a child that you can't trust police, that the military is not doing anything worthwhile, and other generalizations will unfortunately poison them into the belief that they are all bad. Passing on a critical belief as you have may be more damaging to them than building their trust of these things. Then, when they are older and able to understand how to break down the good and the bad, you introduce them to that world so they can try to sort out the diffrerence.
It is a very fine line to walk and it hurts that I (and other parents) have to walk it. But I have become a realist and I think it is best to see the world as it is and not as I wish it to be.

mamabearCali wrote:It is from a bygone time. I know we should not say the former days are better than the latter because we do not speak with knowledge, but still. As much as I wish I could do as he suggests I cannot.

Instead of teaching my children about officer friendly I have to teach them that if they ever think a policeman is angry at them or that they are in trouble, they are to sit still, tell the LEO my name and ask for me or my husband and not say anything else, because police are permitted to lie to my children.

I pray my boys and girls do not join the military as I have no guarantee that their lives won't be sacrificed so that some politician can win an election.

I cannot be proud of my country when debauchery is celebrated, dependence on the state is encouraged, sloth is treated as a sacrament, and those who have been the moral backbone of our nation for it's entire existence (God fearing Christians) are being called horrible names, and are being forced to do things against their faith.

How can I teach my children what a wonderful nation we live in? It is only wonderful in that all of it's former glory has not yet been stripped. I can teach them to love what our country was, what it should be. Truth be told I am very often too busy simply trying to teach them to discern light from dark, and hope that will be enough to guard them and guide them through the dark times ahead.

There are good people in this nation. Salt of the earth sort. The sort that make one say "if only." Our govt though, and the culture is a poison. Our political system so corrupted that at this point the law is whatever the person in charge says it is at that time, and no one stops them.

It breaks my heart to say all this. I wish I could and be all "yes sir". Sadly those times are past. Now we must be wise as serpents while we are innocent as doves.


edited to add...perhaps I am being too harsh. I live in VA and I can smell DC from here. Fairfax (a VA suburb of DC) sent a piece of that excrement here to Richmond it is stinking up the whole state. If I come across as harsh keep that in mind.