Trying to "shelter" your children will almost always have an adverse effect (teenager, pregnant)
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I think it's sad when parents try to shelter their children --- keep them bound by strict curfews, monitor their internet activity, send them to private Christian schools, other stuff like that. What do they expect will happen when their kids are finally on their own to explore the world? All those repressed desires are going to come out. What happens is the young adults start partying to make up for all the socialization and sexual freedom they never had when they were younger. They say that the hardest drinking, most promiscuous sorority girls tend to be daughters of pastors.
I think it's sad when parents try to shelter their children --- keep them bound by strict curfews, monitor their internet activity, send them to private Christian schools, other stuff like that. What do they expect will happen when their kids are finally on their own to explore the world? All those repressed desires are going to come out. What happens is the young adults start partying to make up for all the socialization and sexual freedom they never had when they were younger. They say that the hardest drinking, most promiscuous sorority girls tend to be daughters of pastors.
It sounds like something a teenager or preteen would say. Basically everything you stated as being wrong is a sign of good caring parents. In addition your conclusion is also wrong. Of course it is possible to take even good items to extreme, however what you stated is not extreme.
Two of my middle school daughters' friends had devout strict parents and slowly withered away. One is currently in rehab for underage drinking and the other one is pregnant at the age 15. I am a firm believer that extreme parenting tends to not produce the desired outcome. Kids must have at least a bit of freedom, not too much, nor none at all. Part of my job as a parent, as well as my hubby, is to ensure my daughter is self-sufficient by the time she leaves the nest. This involves a gradual shift of power, which comes with great responsibility. And I will probably be fired at for saying this, but you can't force your children to believe in your religion of choice. My daughter is a Christian because of her intrinsic motivation to believe. If she wants to believe in something else then that is her choice and her choice only.
My DD has a friend who is not allowed to go on a school activity on a bus unless the mother is on the bus because Mom and Dad are convinced she will try to have sex on the bus, same with her younger siblings. No joke, the Mom told me this. Kids were in 8th grade. Same parents don't allow most television or many young adult fiction books including Harry Potter etc.
My DD hates going to their house because the siblings are beastly and the Dad is mean. The parents think that their DD always wants to come to our house and that my DD prefers to hang at our house because "we let them get away with things that they do not allow including inappropriate movies with mature content" Ummm yeah, before I knew how freaky they were, the girls watched Titanic at my house. Oh goodness, what a disaster that was. The girls like our house, I don't censor their every move, DH is not mean and there are no younger siblings. I let the girls hang out, chat, talk, laugh, giggle, watch movies etc without hovering over their every move.
The girls are now high school Freshman and the parents have decided to home school their kids. Their DD is not allowed at our house because we are "too lenient" and unbeknownst to them, their daughter is sneaky, manipulative, lies and does all sorts of things they don't approve of behind their back. My DD may not always tell me every last detail but I am pretty sure she has no reason to be sneaky, lie etc. We don't have blanket strict rules, we parent with many situations on a case by case basis.
DS is 24, in Grad school and never ever had a curfew. I did not monitor his computer or phone usage and with the exception of porn, I really didn't care what kind of movies he watched, what he read etc. Mind you, some of this came with age but I was always open to discussion or thought, no blanket statements. I don't believe in censorship
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