Re: OT: A sure sign my kids are growing up right

"FL Turbo" <noemail@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:9lef7297hohhulcurrnmjbcmg0e9494fcs@xxxxxxxxxx
On Sat, 27 May 06 2:16:11 GMT, Tillman <43082578@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:




On May 26 2006 9:01 PM, Neil Schulman wrote:

I think your daughter is on the right track. We need to stop coddling
people
who
are "down on their luck", and instead teach them the skills necessary to
support
themsleves. People today are soft, and don't realize that making people
dependent on society is far more of a detriment to that person than
helping
them
help themself.

You are absolutely correct, and that was my point. Even at her young age
she can
see this. She does, however, also understand that we shouldn't let a man
starve
while we are teaching him to fish.

Conceivably, the man could be taught Rocket Science, just as well as
he could be taught how to Fish.

Neither one of those scenarios address the reason that the man is
sleeping in the street in the first place.

The man is living in the street most likely because of mental illness
and/or substance addiction.

You can teach him any job skill you care to name, but if the root
cause is not addressed, the end result will be depressingly the same
old sameold.

There are a whole lot of people who have been "down on their luck" at
times in their lives, but unless they succumbed to mental illness or
drug abuse, they come back to lead productive lives.


All of our children do chores to earn money. They are also expected to use
that
money according to a budget. Budget categories include Tithe, Giving,
Savings,
Long term spending, and Short term spending. She chose to use some of her
savings to offer the homeless man food from McDonalds. He asked for the
cash
instead, but I intervened and said if he was hungry we would share food,
but if
he wanted cash to do as he pleased with, he'd need to earn it. He had 2
cheeseburgers, a large fries and a soda.


Good choice.

Had she just given him the money and then sat there and watched him
make a bee-line for the nearest liquor store, it would turned her into
a cynical young kid.

Nothing worse than a kid cynical beyond her age.

Good post, but I disagree with the last line. I think it is very important
to teach children to be cynical at the earliest age possible.


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