There comes a time in every man’s life when they realize everyone they ever counted on was probably just winging it. One personal memory of that idea is when my toddler child wanted to do something. I can’t recall the thing my kid wanted to do but I recall the eyes of an infant looking at me for permission. Was it allowed? Was it not allowed?
I had absolutely no opinion in the matter. Yet I was required to make a call… right then. “Holy shit! I’m a parent and an adult and I need to decide if I’m going to let this kid do this thing and I have no idea!” Talk about stress! If the kid turns out to be a serial killer will it all come down to that one time you let him stick a Ninja Turtle sock in his hat next to the gross half eaten cookie?
Who knows what leads to what? I made a guess, the kid complied, and the rule was made.
I had no other choice; children need to know what’s allowed and what’s not. (Actually, adults too but that’s another story.) I can’t recall my decision but I remember thinking “great, now I’ve created precedent… I need to remember this bullshit decision so that future bullshit decisions form a coherent whole”.
All parents go through this learning curve. We soon realize our parents did the same thing. It has always been so.
Enough with the Hallmark moment crap… in my next post I’ll scale up to the whole damn world.