Tag: parenting

Parenthood

horseman69Leave a comment

If you are under the guidance and surveillance of parents, then I’m telling you: they are really inexperienced. 

All parents are parents for the first time in their lives. What do they know? From reading a book about parenting? Let’s say if they did read a book about parenting and knows how to handle you when you were born, but what if you came out to be a troublemaker that caused all kinds of bizarre situations for your poor guardians… well, now they just have to improvise a way to get you to 18.

Why are parents looking into their kids’ diaries and phones? Is taking a peek into their children’s lives that satisfying? Yes, you may not believe it, but if they love you and support you without dropping you by the orphanage, they are deadly worried about you whenever they get a chance. 

I asked my mother, who raised me up all by herself for my father’s absence about the reasons for the odd actions of parents, and she told me nothing I could put on this blog. She can’t explain it either. But I know the reasons. 

If life were a tortuous road to Rome, if you were destined to walk for 1000 miles to finally reach the destination, your parents would want you to walk 900 less so you could reach that goal in an easier, safer and faster manner. They want you to surpass them, want you to be better than them. (That is, if you’re not an orphan) 

So walk slower, because you only walk to Rome once, and who knows how much longer you’ll have a GPS in life?

Photo credit: nacoa.org

Generation Gap

raining17Leave a comment

Most children rebel against their parents as they’re growing up, which is truthfully just a part of life. These children often swear to parent their kids completely differently than the way they were parented. Whether they follow through with that is a different matter entirely.

Parents constantly argue that they are helping their children, and that their actions are actually for the child’s benefit. However true this is, their actions are actually not always the best option.

If kids are unhappy with the way they were raised, they can always go on and raise their future kids in an entirely different manner. However, because of family norms, these children do often adopt characteristics of their parents’ ways, and follow them in that aspect.

Types of parenting vary from family to family, and the way one takes after their elders is entirely subjective. Depending on family history and personal experiences/beliefs, each generation is raised with individual values.

Photo Credit: http://www.singleforareason.com

 

Get Out and Vote

therightliberalLeave a comment

This will be the first year that I can vote, and I am very excited for it.

Most of my friends don’t understand why I would be excited and why I care so much, which usually ends with me calling them ignorant.

To set the scene, I have gone over the ballots with my parents for as long as I can remember. They were not trying to brainwash me; they always asked me what I though of a proposition or a candidate before they spoke their mind.

I learned to read the laws and understand them in a greater sense. It was always something I enjoyed and became excited about. I was much more likely to be conversing with my teachers about politics than my peers.

And now I am able to actually vote. It feels like a freedom to me, something that is meant to be cherished. As much as my friends may go on about it not mattering if one person votes, it does. Especially in the primaries, one vote does matter.

I feel that if more children were exposed to politics and encouraged to be informed even though they could not vote, we would have much higher turn outs.

After all, a democracy does not work without voter participation. If we want to keep the freedoms that we hold dear, we must have a voice as a people. That starts, and ends, with have a politically educated youth system.

What is Wrong With Youth Soccer

therightliberalLeave a comment

Being a referee, I have seen many youth games as an outsider. But I also have played both club and organized soccer as a kid. Now that I see the insanity from an outside prospective, I am a little taken aback.

Youth Sport Violence image

I think that every child should play soccer as a kid. This is an incredibly biased opinion but it does have merit. Soccer is a great sport for kids because it is simple in rules but complex in thinking. There are no plays drawn up, the player has to figure out what he or she needs to do. Soccer is also very physically demanding — a good amount of long, slow distance mixed with sprinting. For the development of kids, soccer is great.

But here is the dark side: parents. This is also biased because almost every weekend I have to deal with parents who are upset and out of control. Parents ruin soccer for kids. If the parent starts caring more about the game than his or her child, something is wrong.

Parents are their to support their kids, not to scream obscenities at the other team, the ref or another parent. I have seen many a child’s faces go a deep red when he or she hears his or her parents screaming from the sideline.

Parents should be involved with their sons and daughters soccer education. But parents need to learn to control themselves. I know that how badly they want their kid to win and to demolish the other team but can they please keep it to themselves. When they open their mouths to yell things like “Break his leg!”, “Pull her down!”, “That’s right, take that losers!”, they simply look immature.

Parents want their kids to be great and there is nothing wrong with that. But the kids will either motivate themselves to play soccer or they won’t. Chances are that the kid won’t stick with soccer if they have parents yelling at them from the sideline.

So parents take my advice: Encourage your kids, support their team. But please calm down and let the kids play. After all, its youth soccer.

Who are you?

yourgingerkid1 Comment

When looked upon, the average person makes a quick judgment; their eyes, their hair, their teeth, the way they walk. In a matter of seconds a person can be perceived as everything that they are, and a person can be perceived as something completely opposite of who they really are. All of the observations made over time create a deep pool in which the person can only skim the surface of, where the strange and memorable rise up.

A single glance, a slight observation, can create the greatest of labels and accusations. It is simply because of human nature that we do this, but is it avoidable?

Recently there have been some strange accusations made by both students and faculty of the school that involve students. I have been aware of the situation since freshman year, as has everyone who has attended this school within those years. Never once has anyone spoken out claiming to feel uncomfortable about it. Why would they?

As adolescents, we don’t know who we are. Throughout high school we all partake in a trial and error style of determining and hardening who we are and who we want to be. Body-type, personality, and sexuality are somethings that don’t even come to a stand-still until further into life, if ever. Who are the faculty and students to determine who we are for us?

It’s not far to say that making judgements isn’t a part of living. In order to survive we need to come to conclusions about people and situations, literally. As a person who has also been a victim in being told who I am because of my behaviors, I know that it really isn’t fair to those who are in that place now.

I really shouldn’t and won’t get into specifics, but I just hope that those who think they are so correct in their accusations second check their facts, because last time I checked there weren’t any. It’s strange to see adults target students, stereotyping them, but here’s an awesome article on what could happen. Link.