Ethan Metzger seems to be a fine young man who’s got some things figured out that far too many never seem to get:
My parents brainwashed me in similar fashion. They indoctrinated me in their beliefs. To those who think that sounds insidious, consider the opposite. What kind of parent purposely teaches their children things they consider to be wrong? As I’ve said before, a parent’s duty is to teach their kids the best of what they’ve learned themselves, to be the best people they know how to be. It makes no sense to purposely withhold information from that child for fear of constraining the child too much or infringing on their freedom of choice.
Children are not old enough nor mature enough to make good choices. Even my own children, who we’ve taught repeatedly about healthy eating, avoiding too much “screen time”, and getting exercise wou, if allowed, eat cookies while glued to the Internet all day long. Should we just let them so that we don’t encroach on their freedom and avoid brainwashing them? Of course not! (If you truly think so, you need help and should go check into the school of hard knocks immediately!) No, you do the best you can to teach and enforce the way you think is right until they’re ready to stand on their own. There will come a point when they’ll question things and make up their own minds, and you just have to use what influence you have, hope you raised them right, and love them no matter what.
NBA MVP Kevin Durant understand this. Today he’s grateful his mother “brainwashed him” and coerced him to follow the path she had in mind. It’s easy to see now that she did right by her son, but it probably wasn’t always so clear–nor appreciated. But God bless her for being an adult, for having the strength of her convictions enough to raise her son according to what she thought was right.
Being a parent isn’t about getting it perfect. It’s about doing the best you can. And that includes teaching them as much as you can while you still can.
You do your best, and hope for the best. No matter how well you do, though, at some point your children will still need to forgive you.
And, if my results are typical, at some point they’ll be in awe of you and wonder how you did as well as you did.
Or at least, in my case, how they didn’t actually plan an elaborate murder and cover up.
That was brilliant! I hope that I am able to “brainwash” my kids into decent, loving human beings who respect all forms of life and ideas. That’s the best I can hope for.