Harness

I love these pictures, but there are no dates on the back. I'm still trying to guess just how old I was at the time. Notice the harness on me. I had to be old enough to run around or that wouldn't be needed. I vaguely remember my mom guiding me along with this on me.

Because these straps keep the little ones out of traffic, etc., I would have used them with my own children, but I was afraid of what might have happened to me.

Isn't it sad, that so many people neglect their children and others are truly mean and violent and orally abusive to the children and get away with it? But just try to smack your child's fanny and see what happens.

On second thought, don't try it, you could be charged with child abuse and possibly have your children removed from your home for evaluation and kept away from you, their loving mother or father. How did things get so messed up here? Why have we allowed things to get so crazy? Why do we put up with that?What do we do with all the children who have absolutely no social skills because parents were/are afraid to discipline them.

You will hear parents out in public 'begging' their children to do whatever. They won't touch them, but they will yell at them. Some might sit them in the 'time out chair' for a few minutes. Whooptedoo. There is a small number of children with whom this will work, but the others are wrecking havoc with our whole society.

In all the child psychology classes I had to take to become a teacher, I learned a great deal. One very important thing for people to know is, children like boundaries. It makes them feel safe. They will test until they find them. But once they know for sure where those lines are, they are secure within them.

To be safe, areas are quite limited when children are small, but they grow as the child learns to handle more and more responsibility.

I wonder what they are teaching teachers now. Textbooks are one of the major problems in our country today, from the very earliest grades through the universities. Some pretty extreme views are being drummed into our young ones and college students with these books written by some pretty radical authors.

Take a look at your children's textbooks when they first bring them home. And if they don't come home, go to school and ask to see them. You certainly have the right if your children are using them. We must do our best to see that our children are safe in view of the ideas in some of our schools today.