Youth

Kids

Just now, before typing I made a promise to me-self that I will never ever make a wish that I'd be a kid again.  Why?  Well, the cycle will never end.  When I was I kid, I couldn't wait to grow up.  I'm sure some of you wished that when you were younger and now some of you wish you'd be young again.  But then again you're back to the time you wish you'd grow up and so on.  Anyway, this is a beautiful paragraph from Mary Schmich's "Wear Sunscreen".

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

The question is, have we really enjoyed every single time when we were young?  Where did we spend our energy when we still have loads of extra firepower within us?  For one, I think my childhood was spent very differently with kids of today.  I could say there was no dull moment for every day was like an adventure.  7am we're already gathered on the neighborhood streets playing - you know the typical pinoy kid in the barrio.  But in retrospect there could have been times that I should have done some other things.

Spanking

To Train Up a Child

To spank or not to spank?  That is the question but before going futher I suggest you read the previous post, "Training".

Not quite Shakespearian but there has been an uproar from netizens regarding the anti-spanking bill that has just passed first reading.  To give you what's going on, the Positive Discipline Act of 2011 passed the first reading at the House committee on the welfare of children.  The bill is co-authored by Tarlac Representative Susan Yap and Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy.   Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy earlier this year urged Aquino to list bill against spanking children as priority.

She authored House Bill 1082 that protects the child from all forms of corporal punishment and threats of physical harm that may be imposed as a disciplinary action by parents, guardians, teachers and elders.

HB 1082 prohibits the imposition of all manners of corporal punishment and other forms of disciplinary penalty, including humiliating or degrading methods against a child.  HB 1082 also promotes positive and non-violent ways of disciplining minors.  Among punishments to be prohibited are pinching (kurot), pulling of ears (pengot) or hair, cutting or shaving of hair, spanking with hand and whipping with belt, among others.

Training

To Train Up a Child

Permission to Reprint: We receive many requests to reprint our articles in other publications. All of our material is copyrighted so that we can maintain control. Howver, we do hereby grant permission for any publication to reprint our articles in their entirety, without editing, on the conditions that with each reprint, clear recognition be given as to the source; and the article must include our address and an offer to receive our free newsletter. This permission is in force unless otherwise notified. --The Pearls

This book, TO TRAIN UP A CHILD is presented below in part, with the Introduction and Chapter 1 only. The rest of the book can be obtained by ordering from the publisher at No Greater Joy.

To Train Up a Child

by

Michael & Debi Pearl

INTRODUCTION

This book is not about discipline, nor problem children. The emphasis is on the training of a child before the need to discipline arises. It is apparent that most parents never attempt to train a child to obey. They wait until the child becomes unbearable and then explode. With proper training, discipline can be reduced to 5% of what many now practice. As you come to understand the difference between training and discipline, you will have a renewed vision for your family--no more raised voices, no contention, no bad attitudes, fewer spankings, a cheerful atmosphere in the home, and total obedience from your children.

Any parent with an emotional maturity level higher than the average thirteen-year-old can, with a proper vision and knowledge of the technique, have happy obedient children. This is not a theory; it is a practical reality which has been successfully applied many times over.

A couple, stressed out with the conflict of three young children, after spending the weekend with us and hearing some of these principles, changed their strategy. One week later, they exclaimed, "I can't believe it; we went to a friend's house, and when I told my children to do something, they immediately, without question, obeyed."

These truths are not new, deep insights from the professional world of research, rather, the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules, the same technique God uses to train his children. They are profoundly simple and extremely obvious. After examining them with us, you will say, "I knew that all along. Where have I been? It's so obvious."