I don't know if this is honorable or bad parenting. I'm kind of conflicted. But first my tale:
I'm up early Friday, say 4am, getting ready for my day (showering, dressing, etc.) & as always listening to the radio. The host is doing some kind of contest. Call in, answer a question correctly & win a prize. Well, on the line is a 10 year old kid.
The sharp host takes a minute to ask the kid a couple of questions. How old are you? What the heck are you doing up a 4am? etc. etc.
Turns out he was ten and his Dad drives a bread (bakery) truck and he gets up at 3am every morning, "helps" his Dad until his Dad drops him off at school at 8am. The kid seemed happy. He did miss the trivia question and didn't get his prize.
That said, I was conflicted. On one hand I'm thinking here is this father taking reposnibility for his family, working a rough job, putting bread on the table by any means possible. On the other, as the show's host pointed out, what the hell is this kid doing up at 3am every morning? Maybe I should call child services? What kind of childhood is that? I think these are some of the things that go on but we don't always see.
Then again I think back to stories about my Grandfather's youth...living on a farm...doing chores before school...
WHo knows
Originally Posted by atlcomedy
i think its probably very good parenting....all things being equal.
if there is any indication of abuse thats one thing...but without any hint of that its great bonding with the son and father and lessons about the real world for the son.
i hope the dad can keep it up when the son reaches early high school age and begins to think his dad is embarassing and his friends are where its at.
i lived as a kid for 9 years at a place where we got up at 4 am every morning 365 days a year until i graduated from high school. we all had jobs and we hit the ground running, before school, after school and on weekends and in the summer. dont want to go into it all, and unless you had been there you wouldnt understand anyway but we put up with abuse, i dont think this is.
when i was an older boy i sometimes had the job of giving the little kids burr haircuts. we had a two chair barbershop and this man would chop the hell out of the older kids hair (we all hated those hair cuts) while i gave the little ones a burr. i gave this one kid a haircut, and if he had one scar on his head he had 50, all little half moon looking undoctored healed over scars, revealed by the burr haircut, he was maybe 7 or 8. i said, "michael, what happened?" he said his father..who worked at a body shop, would take him to the body shop when he was 4 and 5 years old. the dad would tell him to get this part or that tool and the bewildered kid had no clue what to do and in anger the dad would pop him in the head with a wrench or whatever tool was available because he wasnt helping quick enough. the kid forever after was called "bondo" by the rest of the kids.
dont think its anything like that
