Week 12 - Choices to make

 Hey everyone!

Thankfully, this week hasn't been as busy as past weeks. I think I got the majority of what needed to be done out of the way already, so I was able to take some time to rest and handle other important things in my life. With all luck, I'll know where I can intern in the fall! Fingers crossed!

We were going over parenting this week, reviewing effective and ineffective parenting techniques. Everyone comes from different backgrounds and different lifestyles, so it can be difficult to say that -blank- is the correct style of parenting. At the same time, children are different, even within the same family, so there's really no end-all parenting tricks that hold the answers to all of parents' questions. 

One thing I want to address is the idea of choice. Even from a young age, children are faced with choices every day, from what to wear, who to talk to, how to behave, and other perhaps minor things. As they grow older, they are faced with bigger and more consequence heavy choices, like where to go for college or who to marry. 

As parents, it is vital to help children learn how to properly make choices for themselves. Oftentimes parents take those choices upon themselves because "they know better". While this may or may not be true, we cannot ignore that children should be free to make choices on their own.

Coming from a religious background, I am a huge proponent of the idea of agency. I believe that we are free to choose our own paths and decisions, and that limiting that freedom of choice (where it isn't meant to be limited, mind you) is not the correct way to help someone grow. If a child doesn't know how to make good decisions on their own from a young age they will be wholly unprepared for the flurry of choices that life requires from them. 

Now, there are times when parents should step in during that choice making process. Our professor shared with us that there are three specific scenarios where choice should be limited, and they all deal with the potential consequences of said choice. They are:

1. When the consequences are too dangerous.

2. When the consequences and the lessons learned are too far into the future.

3. When others are affected. 

We can see this reflected a lot in society. It's why we have laws and regulations put in place to protect ourselves and others. 

I think that an effective parent is one that allows for choice as often as it is appropriate. Children, though they might be born to those parents, have a divine destiny that they alone can fill. We cannot seek to determine what they will become ourselves. I'm sure I touched on this last week as well.

That's about it from me today. There's one full week left of school and then I'll be back home in Vegas visiting my family again. I'm super happy to be going back to visit! Wish me luck!

-Caleb