Self-Censorship
I wrote a piece yesterday that even I found heavy-handed when I read it. I had been through a terribly difficult ferry crossing with hundreds of toddlers and their laissez-faire parents. There parenting style was bad, but not so bad that I should have given them both barrels in a public forum. It just wasn't the energy that I wish to project nor the energy that I wish to have come back to me. As a result, I deleted it.
Thank you to Allan for pointing out my heavy-handed approach. I needed to pull back the reins a bit.
Categories: Ferry nightmare Barcelona Mallorca childcare self-censorship
posted by Ron Hudson at 1:48:00 AM
5 Comments:
The problem with the internet is that it used to be that when one had a difficult day, got into a bad mood, blew off some steam with an enjoyable and therapeutic rant, that nobody was around to witness it, and by the next day it didn't seem like all that big a deal. Now it has become so easy to immediately post our tantrums to the entire world, which I have been guilty of and have also lived to regret. With snail mail, it was possible to write the letter and not send it. With blogs, it's out there.
You are right, Allen and I regret the hastiness with which I wrote and posted that note. Life is better today, no matter what I did yesterday. I just hope that people will understand the intensity of the annoying environment aboard the ferry after a day in the heat. I suspect that it almost had to be experienced for anyone to understand.
Hmm, sorry I missed the hasty post. You are, though, a good guy for removing it. Parenting just isn't the same these days. You need only to check the grocery stores to see this...
Thanks, Vickie...I appreciate the support. I have to say, though, that the good thing about being in a supermarket is that you can leave immediately if it becomes annoying. On this particular ferry, we were locked in for 4 hours and there were about a score of children in my section of the ship alone, running amok. Their parents were content to allow it to happen. As the guy next to me said, making an effort to speak in broken English, "We can not blame the children. It is the parents who are not doing their jobs."
Either way, I found my response very ugly when I read it later...frustration from heat, fatique, and a saturation with noise and too much activity pushed me into a corner.
Thanks for sticking with me despite it all...
You know what, as a parent of 5 kids, things like this get under my skin! Parents who can't/won't/don't control their children's behavior are rude and inconsiderate, and really, giving children all that freedom just isn't good for them in the long run! (or good for those around them in the short term)
So, I didn't see the post, but I have no doubt (having been a waitress in family restaurants ifor years) that it was probably well founded! The worst part is that it's becoming more and more frequent to see kids running rampant and unsupervised.
You ARE a good guy too, not so much for removing the post, as for feeling that you should.
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