3/14/10 Sunday

There needs to be more conscious and deliberate decision-making when it comes to people bearing children. They need to think of the consequences as well as the fact that they are going to have a cute little baby. Because, it isn’t just a baby, but a human being, a separate entity that is apart from you. Many parents think that their children will be clones or extensions of themselves. They are shocked and often disappointed to find out that this child grows into an individual and has different viewpoints and opinions than the parents. They may reject their child as being rebellious or contrary. They do not know how to foster a healthy relationship with the child once he/she become of an age where she/he can make their own decisions. They criticize their child for things going wrong in his/her life because the parents feels that if the child were more like them then he/she would do better, have a better life, etc.

In the case of fundamentalist parents they blame the world and secular evil for their child going astray. They make the child feel like a deviant for every opinion or viewpoint that they have that doesn’t fit into their safe world of what is considered holy and right thinking/living.

Fundamentalist parents often have mental illnesses that go untreated and undiagnosed, which can lead to a very unhappy childhood for the unknowing child. They are plunged into a world that is at first fascinating until they reach an age where they are surrounded by more rational people, such as at school etc. That is if they aren’t one of the ones that are home schooled. They’re lucky enough to be able to escape the clutches of the fundamentalist parents for a period of time and be exposed to other new ideas. These ideas are very threatening for the fundamentalist parent. They feel very uncomfortable with ideas that don’t fit into their tight fundamentalist bubble. Children’s worlds expand quickly as they grow up. Their mother’s are the center of their world and whatever siblings or grandparents may be present at first. Then their world expands when they are sent to school or daycare or something. They soon see that the world extends beyond the confines of their family and home.