“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6
Change the masculine pronouns to something more gender-neutral; these are wise words for today’s parents, and one doesn’t have to be a follower of the Christian faith to see the inherent wisdom. They are, in fact, words that should be engraved on every parent’s mind.
I was raised by a stern grandmother who was a firm believer in teaching children how to be responsible adults—by using a willow switch if she thought it necessary to get her point across. I’m happy to say that I was a quick learner and, as a result, never received any of her switch sessions after I was twelve, and I like to think I grew into a fairly responsible adult.
The funny thing is, though, that I seldom thought of my grandmother’s teaching when I had to make right-wrong decisions; I just kind of did the ‘right’ thing because it felt like the thing to do.
Of late, though, I’ve had reason to remember my grandmother’s teaching. After decades of living in official government housing when I was posted abroad, and in Washington, DC, suburbs when at home, I moved to a small city, Frederick, which is north of the nation’s capital, into a townhouse community on the northern edge of the city.
It was the first time I’d lived in a city since living in Baltimore in 1969, and I’d forgotten what it was like living cheek by jowl with a diverse set of neighbors. It took some adjusting, but I’ve made a few friends, and I find the convenience of being in an urban area is worth the crowding.
But, I digress. What I wanted to talk about was training children, right? Well, recently, I’ve had a few run-ins with a 13-year-old girl who lives across the street from our townhouse, which have brought back memories of my grandmother. This girl apparently gets bored at home sometimes, and she runs up and down the street, ringing doorbells, usually around seven or eight at night.
It’s annoying, especially to me because I work from home, and this time, after supper, is usually when I get most of my most creative writing done. When this girl rang our doorbell about six times one evening, a neighbor and I tracked her to the townhouse where she lives and spoke to her mother. The mother’s reaction was shocking. “Oh, she’s just letting off a little steam,” she said. “No harm done.” “But, it’s annoying and disrupting my work,” I said. The woman shrugged, as if to say, that wasn’t her problem.
My neighbor said if the child did it again, she would call the police, and that could result in the girl having a juvenile record. Even that didn’t get the mother’s attention.
I then said, “A child that age running around at that time of night could be attacked by muggers, or bitten by a dog. Do you want that on your conscience?” The woman clearly didn’t, and grudgingly said she would tell the girl to stop ringing our bells.
Move the clock forward two weeks, and I began hearing from other neighbors that the girl, now accompanied by some of her friends, was at it again. I can see a thoughtless adulthood in this child’s future, if not a criminal history or worse, and I lay the blame for it in advance on a parent who can’t seem to be bothered to try and teach her the proper path to follow.
It’s simple, really. Early training lays a foundation for a child’s future behavior and choices. | NWI
