Learning Self Reliance
During
a group discussion yesterday, a colleague of mine relayed an incident
of when he was six years old. It seems he grew up in a tough
neighborhood and was continuously beaten up every day on his way home
from school by a group of five brothers.
One day while running home from school, the brothers started chasing him, immediately sensing danger, he made a dash for the side door of his house. Grabbing the door knob and expecting to reach the sanctuary of home , he found the door locked. Seeing his father inside he began yelling for his dad to open the door.
His father replied,”Sorry, I can’t do that son, you have to learn how to handle this problem on your own.” Turning around he saw the five brothers coming at him with a vengeance. It was now or never, so picking out the smallest of the brothers, the one he thought he could possibly take down, they immediately began to fight.
The battle became extremely violent and bitter with neither one willing to give up. After a what seemed long battle a truce was reached and the conflict ended. As soon as the wounds healed, they became best of friends and there would be no more fights.
His mother was very unhappy with dad, however dad and son finally convinced her of the wisdom of the choice and life went on, despite the torn clothing. Because of this incident, the son learned much about life that he could not have been taught any other way.
This happened many years ago, before political correctness. In today’s world the father would have probably been sued for child abuse. What a shame.
Now, I’m not one to advocate violence, but as a youth I had been involved in similar circumstances,and even as an adult, although it didn’t come to blows, I have had a couple occasions where major conflicts have arisen.
In all cases, when the conflict was solved to the mutual agreement of all concerned , we have become good friends. We are all human beings, a part of the animal kingdom, and like it or not, there is and always will be a pecking order. that is a fact of nature, nothing will ever change that.
As we go through life , in all relationships, boundaries are established. In most cases, these boundaries can be established by peaceful means. However, there will always be times when as a last resort, we must take drastic measures.
This is true , not only on a personal level but a world level as well. We must remember there are some people who don’t like us, and even some who would like to do us in, that will never change.
In today’s world , often times kids are pampered and every little problem is solved for them by some well meaning adult. Little does this adult realize how much they are harming the child by not letting them solve their own problems.
How is this person going to learn to solve the many problems of adulthood, if they are denied the privilege of learning this as a child when the consequences are a lot less? In our zeal to establish a perfect society, we have forgotten the basic principle of life. Each and every person has to be responsible for themselves and be able to take care of themselves.
When we deny them that important learning lesson, we are doing them a great disservice, it actually does them a tremendous amount of harm by not teaching them to be self reliance.
Now you can follow me on Kindle.
Create your own photo gifts, your photo or mine.
One day while running home from school, the brothers started chasing him, immediately sensing danger, he made a dash for the side door of his house. Grabbing the door knob and expecting to reach the sanctuary of home , he found the door locked. Seeing his father inside he began yelling for his dad to open the door.
His father replied,”Sorry, I can’t do that son, you have to learn how to handle this problem on your own.” Turning around he saw the five brothers coming at him with a vengeance. It was now or never, so picking out the smallest of the brothers, the one he thought he could possibly take down, they immediately began to fight.
The battle became extremely violent and bitter with neither one willing to give up. After a what seemed long battle a truce was reached and the conflict ended. As soon as the wounds healed, they became best of friends and there would be no more fights.
His mother was very unhappy with dad, however dad and son finally convinced her of the wisdom of the choice and life went on, despite the torn clothing. Because of this incident, the son learned much about life that he could not have been taught any other way.
This happened many years ago, before political correctness. In today’s world the father would have probably been sued for child abuse. What a shame.
Now, I’m not one to advocate violence, but as a youth I had been involved in similar circumstances,and even as an adult, although it didn’t come to blows, I have had a couple occasions where major conflicts have arisen.
In all cases, when the conflict was solved to the mutual agreement of all concerned , we have become good friends. We are all human beings, a part of the animal kingdom, and like it or not, there is and always will be a pecking order. that is a fact of nature, nothing will ever change that.
As we go through life , in all relationships, boundaries are established. In most cases, these boundaries can be established by peaceful means. However, there will always be times when as a last resort, we must take drastic measures.
This is true , not only on a personal level but a world level as well. We must remember there are some people who don’t like us, and even some who would like to do us in, that will never change.
In today’s world , often times kids are pampered and every little problem is solved for them by some well meaning adult. Little does this adult realize how much they are harming the child by not letting them solve their own problems.
How is this person going to learn to solve the many problems of adulthood, if they are denied the privilege of learning this as a child when the consequences are a lot less? In our zeal to establish a perfect society, we have forgotten the basic principle of life. Each and every person has to be responsible for themselves and be able to take care of themselves.
When we deny them that important learning lesson, we are doing them a great disservice, it actually does them a tremendous amount of harm by not teaching them to be self reliance.
Now you can follow me on Kindle.
Create your own photo gifts, your photo or mine.
Posted by The Florida Hoosier at 8/30/2011 8:04 AM 
Categories: Common Sense
Tags: common sense child rearing conservative values good old days wisdom
Categories: Common Sense
Tags: common sense child rearing conservative values good old days wisdom
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