Archive for July, 2016

Unfortunately our present may be our future

Monday, July 18th, 2016

hope is not a strategy

Each week as the adults are talking about the current example of unimaginable violence, we worry about what to tell the kids.  Instead of protecting them, share your values.  Let them know how you expect them to treat others.

As an example, this past weekend a friend was at a fast food restaurant with her 13 year-old son.  She asked him to hold the table as she got the food.  After they left, he began crying in the car and told his mom three kids called him an F… Slow Stupid Retard. He is autistic.

The mom told her son the boys probably don’t have parents that teach them right from wrong.  They may not be loved as he is loved.  They simply may not know any better.  But we do.

Hope is not a strategy, but decisive planning is.  Don’t expect your children to learn kindness or empathy on their own.  As their greatest and most important teachers, that is our job.

We are being distracted by things such as Pokémon Go.  We have to be careful or the cult film Idiocracy will be our future.  The good news is that when children are born, they don’t know the hate or prejudice that are the root cause of our problems as indicated in the lyrics below from South Pacific.  Perhaps, we’ll get lucky and the parents who would teach hate and fear will be too busy playing Pokémon Go.

You’ve got to be taught

To hate and fear,

You’ve got to be taught

From year to year,

It’s got to be drummed

In your dear little ear

You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid

Of people whose eyes are oddly made,

And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,

You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,

Before you are six or seven or eight,

To hate all the people your relatives hate,

You’ve got to be carefully taught

lyrics from South Pacific

Hoping for an uneventful week.

Tina Nocera, Founder

Parental Wisdom®

 

Welcome to our world little one!

Sunday, July 10th, 2016

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“We did not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Ancient Indian Proverb

 

To our new grandson, we are so very happy that you arrived this week healthy and happy!

Your parents are good people, and you are loved by a very large (and somewhat crazy) extended family. Having so many people ‘in your corner’ is a very good thing!

We will encourage you to play, learn and grow to be someone good in this world.

Here is a little advice from Nonna:

  1. When you color, use all the crayons in the box. That will make your picture so much more interesting.
  1. When playing with your friends, they may have different ideas on what to play or how to play. Listen to their ideas, too. After all, the objective is to have fun. If you start with that in mind, everybody wins!
  1. Be grateful for everything you have, and remember it’s more about the people you are playing with, than about the game.
  2. There are certain games, like baseball, where you have to choose sides. Remember, you only have to choose sides when the game specifically calls for it. Other times, it’s nice to start in the middle rather than taking sides.
  3. Although the message in stories is that some people are good and others are bad, that is very rarely true.
  4. Don’t think you can look at a person and know the kind of person they are. Give people the benefit of the doubt. The ugly witch can be a very good person.
  5. Know that we will do everything we can to protect you. And the largest population in the world is good people. They outnumber everyone else.
  6. There aren’t always easy answers to a problem, but we can’t stop trying to fix them. There is always something we can do.
  7. You are going to make mistakes. Admit them, apologize, learn from your mistakes and move on.
  8. It is always a good time to be kind.

Every time a child is born, so is a grandparent.

I love you all the time!

Tina Nocera, Founder

Parental Wisdom®

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