ANST - Re: was Kids with Boffers/now SCA parenting?

[Laury Torrence]

Ches wrote:
> Speaking to a few of the members of the barony at our Business meeting
> yesterday I found that there were many who felt the main problem with
> keeping our youth in was the parents. They feel there are too many
> irresponsible parents in the SCA to have an effective system of young
> fighters.

I have to wonder how many of those people who thought the "main problem"
with our young people were "irresponsible parents" are parents themselves?
I'm not a parent, I'm an Aunt, but I am equally concerned with the well being
of my neices and nephew as their parents are.  The proposals suggested
in the beginning of all this, REQUIRED that a parent (or legal guardian)
be present at all times during any "boffer tourneys".  In any case, until we
could set up a workable system, AND change some Kingdom law regarding
boffer fighting, the whole thing is moot anyway.

> I have only seen one incident of this and it scared me, the little
> girl what wrapping the list ropes around her neck. By the time I got to her
> it was already wond 3 times. Her mother yelled at me for unraveling the
> child.
> Do any of you also feel that parenting in the SCA is not up to snuff?

One incident does not a bad parent make my dear...........children have ways
of getting themselves into strange, and sometimes dangerous positions.  They
put heads through railings, fences, and other objects, and get stuck.  They stick
arms, hands, and fingers into narrow nooks and crannies, jars, and whatnots, and get stuck.
They swallow rocks, coins, dirt, marbles, pet food, and Lord knows what else, and somehow
manage to survive.  Of course they have to endure the embarrassment of getting
released from these predicaments, or endure epikak (or worse) for swallowing the objects
of their fascination.  I talked my little brother into putting Cocoa Puffs up his nose when we
were kids, then I pinched his nose............wanted to see if they made chocolate snot (I guess
I figured they made the milk chocolate, why not snot?)  Some of the things we did as kids
surprises me when I think about them.  But that doesn't mean our parents were bad parents.
I have to wonder if the mother yelled at *you*, or was yelling from being upset?  She may not
have seen what was happening, and you yourself said she had it wound around herself 3 times
before you got there.  Small children especially, seem to get themselves into trouble a lot
faster than you think they could.  This is one of the reasons I don't "own" any, I just rent.

Parents anywhere/everywhere have the same general problems, and I don't believe that
parents in the SCA are any better, or worse than anywhere else.  That's the most preposterous
statement I've ever heard.  And what repudiates that even more, is the fact that most children
I come into contact with in the SCA are much more polite, socialized, and better behaved
than "mundane" children of the same age.  I suggest you duck.........the firestorm of P.O.'d
parents should be coming soon.

HE Caterina
je suis le tenebreux


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