Nature V Nurture
by
, 14-05-2012 at 15:46
(1059 Views)
I reared my kids when I was in my early 20s and it was pretty much all trial and error. OK, it was mostly error.
But I successfully spawned two beautiful children from my first marriage, managing to do it all over again when I inherited three more in my second marriage.
My first wife, Mitch, was fairly convinced you needed to teach children – to nurture rather than rely on their natural instincts. Like playing with dolls was a taught thing for girls and falling out of trees and crashing motorbikes was a taught thing for boys. And I was a great teacher of boys, don’t worry about that.
So it came as a bit of a shock when it became apparent that our daughter liked dolls. Really liked dolls. Jessica accumulated 33⅓ Barbie dolls (the cat got the other ⅔) despite Mitch encouraging other interests and our son, well, we'd lose Daniel every year at the annual Ag Quip field days when he'd be climbing in and all over the hundreds of tractors on display.
Yet other kids are thankfully different and this should not be viewed as either right or wrong. Why is this so?
I can only tell of my experiences, but I do find it's easier when I think in terms of energies. Of life force.
Being individuals, kids have differing amounts of male and female energy – some have more than others and again, this should not be viewed as right or wrong.
Us and them. It's just us.
Author Michael Riddell lives in Rous Mill, Australia with his wife, Melinda. After graduating with a degree in economics, Michael worked in the cotton mill industry for more than 16 years and now is a gas pipeliner. His new book, Life, A Little Brown Dog and Sh*te Like That is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Balboa. Twitter: @riddell_michael Facebook
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