When the question reveals more than the answer
I like reading some of the advice columns in the newspaper. Often, it’s the fact that someone even asked the question that is more interesting/useful than the answer. There’s one today in the Dr. Joyce Brothers column. A group of suburban moms want to know what to do about the new family that move into the subdivision. Apparently, the new mom is letting her pre-schoolers run around in the backyard, yell, wear costumes, and make mud pies. And the mom doesn’t take them to playgroups. The question is “Should we make friends or maintain our distance?”
As I was reading, I kept waiting for something like, “and the kids are running around without any clothes” or “they are throwing mud pies at the neighbors’ cars” which would justify the “running wild” observation. Nope. Apparently the moms are distressed because the kids are being allowed to be kids.
Oh yeah, another thing the letter writer mentions is that the people are “some kind of old-fashioned hippies.” Does the group of moms think they are hippies because of their children’s behavior even though the father may work as an accountant for the local Republican party? Or does it actually take a hippie now at days to allow children to play outside the supervised and controlled boundaries of a playgroup?
Why would anyone ask such a question? Have we really reached the point where mud pies are not part of a normal childhood? I guess if you want to have a quiet and orderly household, mud pies are out of the question. How sad.
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You’re right. It is a sad commentary on our society that anyone would even ask that question.