Today’s Table Talk is by our friend Margie Sims. Margie doesn’t know it, but I think about her wise words often. She encouraged me when we first met (okay, so we first spoke during an interview) with a keep on keepin’ on dose of inspiration from one who is not only in the trenches, but has also launched a couple kids into real life. She knows what its like to plant, fertilize & prune with faith – hoping/knowing that it all works out on the other side. Because she has seen the other side and knows what she’s talking about. She’s a mom of 10 (yes, 10!) ages preschool to adult. I hope you enjoy what she has to share today – especially as end of the year festivities enter the picture. She speaks from experience.
Thanks Margie! … and thanks for walking the road with me.
Everybody? Not on My Watch…
I wanted to ride my bike to the mall with my BFF when I was about 12.
My mother said no.
I told her everybody rode their bikes to the mall.
“And if everybody jumped off a cliff, would you jump, too?” she asked.
Why do all my friends’ mothers say that? I thought.
When I was 17, a guy who was well over 21 asked me on a date. My
mother said I had to wait until I was 18 to go out with him. So I
did.
In college, a foreign student invited me to his apartment. “I will
cook dinner for you,” he said in his thick, mysterious accent.
“I can guarantee you he has more in mind than dinner,” my mother said.
Conversations between kids and parents have changed, it seems.
Nowadays they go something like this:
“Why wait until I am 21 to drink? Everybody drinks before they are 21.”
“Fine, then,” say Mom and Dad. “We will host the party so we can
supervise and make sure no one drives home under the influence.”
At the last high school my kids attended, a banner hung on the gate
from prom to graduation proclaiming Parents Who Host Lose the Most.
Really? We have to have a giant sign to encourage us not to host
underage drinking?
When my oldest daughter was in the spring musical during her senior
year, I volunteered our house for the cast party.
“Well, Mom,” she said, “I already mentioned it and they want to have a
coed sleepover. I told them my parents would never go for that.”
“How about the girls sleep over and the boys leave at midnight?”
“I offered that, too, but they said they would find a house where the
parents either didn’t care or weren’t paying attention.”
What happen to the jumping off the cliff analogy? What happened to
that’s not healthy, that’s not right, you’re too young or it’s illegal.
“Why try and stop them when they are just going to do it anyway?” I
hear repeatedly.
Because they need to know it’s wrong when they do it. And how will
they know if we parents don’t tell them?
Wrong. The opposite of right. Introduce your kids to the word.
Most kids want boundaries. All kids need guidance. And they all need
to know parents care enough to say no.
It is no wonder kids are convinced everybody’s doing everything.
Instead of encouraging the common sense it takes to not tumble over
the cliff with the crowd, parents are packing kids a parachute to
protect them from consequences, then acting as private escort right up
to the edge.
Say no, offer guidance, be the bad guy (it’s in the job description).
Will kids always make the right choices? Maybe not. But they will
know the difference between right and wrong. And they won’t have to
wonder if you care.
Margie Sims is the mother of 10 and a frequent contributor to Memphis Parent magazine. Follow her blog at margiesims.com
Glad to hear of other “no” moms out there. :-)
http://inthemidstof.wordpress.com/
I am so happy to see I am not the only one that feels this way! I feel like parents are controlled by the children thanks to other parents. Sometimes I feel like it is a type of civil war and wish we could gather all the parents together and tell them by allowing their children to do whatever they want, they are destroying other parents relationships with their own kids because they say NO!