(February 13, 2012 at 11:56 pm)Moros Synackaon Wrote: Being a father, though, requires that you keep in mind that sooner or later, you must play the role of Judge Dredd.
If you get too buddy buddy, you might compromise your position. Sometimes being a parent, I suppose, must suck due to wanting to grow your child in positive manners instead of mitigating negative influences.
Also, children tend to define themselves by what their parents are /not/. Beware of that, because letting magical thinking become engrained only opens up your child for exploitation and heart break, chasing a presence that never is there but in your head. And I can think of hundred of other "only in my head" entities that I would rather trust in.
Have you simply sat down and asked questions with the girl? Hearing "I don't know" is the goal (not "there is/is not a god").
She is 8 so not really, we were in the car and I just asked her why she believed and she pretty much hit upon I don't know from the start. From what I understand of the brain it only can do positive thinking, so engaging a person in an idea to try to get them to release that idea has the opposite effect. I don't want the children to deal with spritual matters at all until they are curious about them organically through their experience in life. Right now they have only mentioned spiritual things a very little bit so I just let the idea pop right back out of their heads and do something else. I expose them to science all the time though, through youtube videos and experiments we can conduct in the home.
As for Judge Dredd, well I play that role enough and try to avoid my harsh tendencies. I've realized through the successes I've had with these children and the parenting classes I've taken that the most effective ways to handle people is through natural consequences and connecting with their feelings. There is nothing worse than "mind reading" when you are trying to change someones mind. You will talk past what they really feel almost every time and really piss them off in the process.
