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This is a great meditation. Something that needs to be done deliberately if you also make a practice of really teaching the conscience of children. When you emphasize the importance of moral decisions when they are difficult, that naturally instills a fear of reporting their own failures even if you are not heavy handed in punishments. Children especially often care more about their father's approval than even the consequences imposed.

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That understandable fear of parental disapproval MUST be actively-countered by explicit praise/approval of their willingness to be transparent about communicating embarrassing or questionable news. Give your children permission to be imperfect - while you may be disappointed they made particular choices, your love for them endures and you honor difficult-and-honest conversations.

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Our society around safety-ism doesn’t like the bad news of personal responsibility. Most personal decisions are now at the end of the debt stick and the population sing for their supper.

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From a historical perspective, we are safer than ever, and yet most of us especially in the First World are now more terrified than ever of the discomfort of an awkward conversation.

Totally agree - most operate in fear, and the debt stick is a powerful force to keep everyone in line, tap dancing cautiously around fickle employers whose paychecks many depend on to keep up with the voracious debt-service payments we owe to the banker masters.

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