May 7, 2010
For Their Own Good
For Their Own Good Homebodies By Cheryl Gochnauer Cheryl@homebodies.org Flipping through the papers in my daughter'sbackpack, I noticed a book crammed into one of hernotebooks. "What's that?" I asked. "I don't know," she answered. Now, my daughter is a preteen, which means she knowsabsolutely everything. My radar went up. Pullingthe novel out of the folder, I flipped it over - andmy heart sank. It was one of those popularwitchcraft/horror-based books that are expresslyforbidden in the Gochnauer household. I didn't know whether to yell or cry. And mydaughter didn't know whether to look at the ceilingor the floor; she just knew she didn't want to lookat ME. I decided not to yell or cry. Instead, I held thebook and got very quiet inside. It was another ofthose teachable moments. We'd talked about thissubject before, about how important it is to beselective about the activities we watch, read aboutand participate in. But it had been a while. Infact, as I thought about it, it had probably beenover a year since we'd covered this specificsubject. Not a long time to a middle-aged mom, but aneternity to an absorb-the-world, hormone-chargedpreteen. I set the book on the table. "I'll return this tothe school library for you," I said, removing thetemptation. "When you get home tonight, we'll talk.I don't want to just say 'NO' without youunderstanding why. And I want to get inside yourmind a little bit, so you can share with me what itis that makes this kind of book seem attractive toyou." My daughter nodded, and headed out the door. She'sgot a lot to think about before our conversationtonight. Censorship? Absolutely. If there's any place inthis world where we should applaud censorship, it'sin the parenting arena. No matter what we do orwhere we go, regardless of position or authority, wewill never have a better opportunity to shapeanother human being. I'm not talking about churning out little robotsthat think just like us. But I am talking aboutproviding direction - helping our kids to focus onthose things that are noble, right, pure andadmirable. Our children are bombarded everyday with conflictingmessages. If I don't take responsibility for mygirls in this area, who will? You can be sure therewill always be someone or something ready to stepright up and do our job for us, and we may not likethe results. It's crucial that kids are guided by someone wholoves them. And I do love my girls, more than life.If that means taking heat for being a mean mommysometimes, so be it. Comments? Write Cheryl@homebodies.org , or visit theactive messageboards at www.homebodies.org .Copyright 2004 Cheryl Gochnauer. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.

Posted by Staff at 1:59 AM