Smokey Joe
Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2003
- Messages
- 2,617
Doing It Right
NCBUSA--I'm moved to add: SM and Wolfpackin are Doing It Right--It's important that the kids be exposed to books and movies that have good messages, but IT IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT that the PARENTS be involved WITH THE KIDS!!!
I was lucky--I read to my #1 son, and when he was small, if I paused longer than to inhale, it was "Daddy, please read!" We devoured childrens' books--all of Dr. Seuss, tons more from the public library. Did you know that L. Frank Baum and his family wrote not just The Wizard of Oz but a whole 5-foot-shelf of Oz books? We started at one end--The Wizard--and continued to the book where Princess Ozma practices magic but will not permit anyone else in the kingdom of Oz to do so. At that point I stopped with the Oz books, and carefully explained why. (Just substitute "uses guns" for "practices magic".) But we sure kept on reading other books.
We watched movies, too--His favorite as a little boy was "The Dark Crystal," then we progressed to "The Hobbit"--did you know that it is possible to actually wear the red stuff off a videotape if you view it enough times? (Had to buy a replacement!) We'd recite the lines right along with the characters--my favorite was always Richard Boone's Smaug Dragon voice, and we noted that the bad guys got all the really rousing good songs. In middle school, he didn't agree with me about much, but we kept a standing date to watch Pappy Boyington in "Black Sheep Squadron," outflying the Japs and out-foxing the U. S. Marines. We made a model of Pappy's plane, a Chance Vought F4U Corsair; it was a struggle but we did it. We also watched a LOT of Star Trek/Next Generation.
When he was old enough, he asked to go archery deer hunting. We practiced up and went. Gun deer, same deal. We spent a year finding the right deer rifle for him. Then he wanted to participate in the American Birkebeiner cross-country ski race that I did annually. Well, kid, practice up and you're going. He soon was faster than me.
Now he's through high school and college, and off on his own, working. He works at a college in Boston, MA. He is amused by his peers' reaction when they learn that he hunts and shoots. He is contemptuous of Massachusetts' general attitude toward gun and weapon ownership and use ("You'd think the cradle of the American Revolution could do it better.")
What I'm saying in all this (besides being a very proud father) is that the important thing is to DO IT WITH YOUR KIDS. I have BTDT and seen the results--well worth all the hassle, believe me.
"'Tis education forms the common mind: Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." Alexander Pope, "Moral Essays"
NCBUSA--I'm moved to add: SM and Wolfpackin are Doing It Right--It's important that the kids be exposed to books and movies that have good messages, but IT IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT that the PARENTS be involved WITH THE KIDS!!!
I was lucky--I read to my #1 son, and when he was small, if I paused longer than to inhale, it was "Daddy, please read!" We devoured childrens' books--all of Dr. Seuss, tons more from the public library. Did you know that L. Frank Baum and his family wrote not just The Wizard of Oz but a whole 5-foot-shelf of Oz books? We started at one end--The Wizard--and continued to the book where Princess Ozma practices magic but will not permit anyone else in the kingdom of Oz to do so. At that point I stopped with the Oz books, and carefully explained why. (Just substitute "uses guns" for "practices magic".) But we sure kept on reading other books.
We watched movies, too--His favorite as a little boy was "The Dark Crystal," then we progressed to "The Hobbit"--did you know that it is possible to actually wear the red stuff off a videotape if you view it enough times? (Had to buy a replacement!) We'd recite the lines right along with the characters--my favorite was always Richard Boone's Smaug Dragon voice, and we noted that the bad guys got all the really rousing good songs. In middle school, he didn't agree with me about much, but we kept a standing date to watch Pappy Boyington in "Black Sheep Squadron," outflying the Japs and out-foxing the U. S. Marines. We made a model of Pappy's plane, a Chance Vought F4U Corsair; it was a struggle but we did it. We also watched a LOT of Star Trek/Next Generation.
When he was old enough, he asked to go archery deer hunting. We practiced up and went. Gun deer, same deal. We spent a year finding the right deer rifle for him. Then he wanted to participate in the American Birkebeiner cross-country ski race that I did annually. Well, kid, practice up and you're going. He soon was faster than me.
Now he's through high school and college, and off on his own, working. He works at a college in Boston, MA. He is amused by his peers' reaction when they learn that he hunts and shoots. He is contemptuous of Massachusetts' general attitude toward gun and weapon ownership and use ("You'd think the cradle of the American Revolution could do it better.")
What I'm saying in all this (besides being a very proud father) is that the important thing is to DO IT WITH YOUR KIDS. I have BTDT and seen the results--well worth all the hassle, believe me.
"'Tis education forms the common mind: Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." Alexander Pope, "Moral Essays"