Parents understand (they may not know it) the difference between corrective and preventive action.
Corrective action ensues when your teenager gets in trouble at school or fails to come home on time from an evening with friends. Both are problems that must be fixed. With the entire family in reactive mode, your household is disrupted as you work to fix the problem.
Preventive action is keeping your child from hanging out with the questionable kid whose reputation of no good precedes him/her or not letting your child drive after 8PM when you know he/she isn't quite ready. Both are potential accidents and you are taking action to prevent any occurence at all.
Kids learn more lessons when preventive action is taken. The discussions are tough but you don't have a crisis to deal with as you advice your child.
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2 comments:
This is a good analogy.
Along the same lines, Jared Diamond, in his book, Collapse, describes two situations that cause trouble for cultures (and probably parents, too): Failure to Anticipate, and Failure to Perceive (trouble ahead).
C.Whitlow
Did the USA anticipate the globalization of business? Can we see the potential trouble? For example, will our middle school students be ready to compete (with more countries than us) ten years from now? Will they have the necessary math and science skills?
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