tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15504719.post6411990438847875616..comments2023-11-02T16:55:23.976+08:00Comments on life@riang: Momto5http://www.blogger.com/profile/01811554098885869837noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15504719.post-25762208300089786612009-09-07T16:48:48.874+08:002009-09-07T16:48:48.874+08:00I came across this blogpost while surfing Google, ...I came across this blogpost while surfing Google, and if I may I'd like to chime in on what you believe your children should be taught.<br /><br />I am myself a Singaporean teenager, raised Catholic but not identifying as Catholic except in terms of my family's culture. Perhaps in this area we might have some clash of beliefs, but nonetheless I really feel you have a great family atmosphere when it comes to sex.<br /><br />I don't know what your children are like - your eldest would be a couple of years younger than me - but I don't think that it's possible for any parent to completely control how their child ends up thinking. There's a large mix of values at school, people who are conservative or liberal (or libertarian, hehe), and they don't necessarily have the same value system as their families, e.g. a bisexual atheist friend from a traditional Taoist family, Catholic lesbian from a Catholic family, a fundamentalist Protestant from a freethinking family.<br /><br />I've had some arguments with my parents over my own beliefs, to the point where I've decided that I'm just not going to talk about what I think at home anymore. Is it a Catholic thing to ascribe these differing opinions to "bad parenting"? I'm not sure. My parents don't want to know what I believe because they view it as a failure to make their children adhere to the catechism. But whatever your children believe, please don't blame yourself. You can't legislate what goes on inside people's heads. You could disapprove of premarital sex, but once they're of age (or even if they're underage - it happens) - it's not your fault, and I guess it's not <i>anyone's</i> fault either, it's just another issue where there's a lacuna between you.<br /><br />In any case - forgive my long-windedness - I write this just to add that I really like the dynamics you've got at your home, and I wanted to try explaining why education might sometimes end up ineffective anyway, in forming children's thought processes.bekanoreply@blogger.com