Posted on 07/08/2018 12:16:57 PM PDT by rktman
A few months back, I experienced what a friend of mine and many libertarians and conservative parents say they have experienced: My teenagers started spouting leftist platitudes. Being combative and sarcastic by nature (since all Cubans are born with a sharp tongue), we all ended up angry and frustrated.
Upon subsequent calm reflection, I realized I had accomplished nothing. And so I tried another approach. To my complete surprise, there was a 180-degree turnaround in the teens’ views.
I would now like to share the tactics I used and give the following advice to those who are at wit’s end.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Well, my Mom said something which made me start working at age 15, and she said that we might not have any money for me, to pay for next year’s tuition. And I knew my parents were doing part-time jobs at the side. That was the wake up call for me and being a stupid kid, i thought money was free..
Usually I bought the latest Playstation games online back then, then you tend to be a cheapskate and go to Craigslist etc..
easy.
I told all my children a simple story and they all “got” it almost instantly.
When they asked about the different political parties .. I said well..
it’s like if you worked all weekend washing cars for some extra cash while your siblings stayed home and played computer games. Then Monday we go to the ice cream store and I take half your money against your wishes and use it to buy them ice cream too, because, “it’s the fair thing to do”.
That’s what socialism is.
Communism is the same... except I hold a gun to your head while taking it.
Same here and I’m a kid from the late 90’s. In canada before the age of 18, the law says you dont pay taxes. Right 2 weeks after my 18th, I said “where did the rest of my money go? Taxes? What’s that?”
I am blessed with a teenager who pretty much is core Conservative with a critical thinking mind. She finds abortion abhorrent for example. Unfortunately, she recently has come out with outrageous attitudes based on what she has been reading about President Trump. Social media and the news media are disgusting propagandists. So now I get boiling mad over the lies about guns and immigration with my own daughter. This is the contention the left adores.
>> ... since all Cubans are born with a sharp tongue ...
Yeah, and that’s all the reason in the world to let you and your kin into the country in “onesies and twosies” rather than by the boatload. Assimilate.
Oh, yeah - and you don’t need an accent mark in your surname - we pronounce it “Simon” in this country, not “See-moan”.
I concur 100%, with the caveat that some children never mature
Or if you are feeling edgy and adventurous, put on a MAGA cap and take your son to Starbucks or somewhere and let him see the abuse heaped on you for no reason.
I am so blessed to have a son that has his head on right. He may not always agree with me (mostly does) but he always uses sound reasoning. Such a contrast to his cousins. They are lost causes.
Send them to a nation that really KNOWS what its like to live under the socialism they think they crave. Let them talk to the young people of Ukraine, for example, who just a few years ago - mostly unarmed - against their Russian puppet president who was an absolute socialist (corrupt - as all socialists are). Let your teenager visit with those who lost their friends, including the “Heavenly Hundred” who were gunned down by government snipers as they were PEACEFULLY assembled to make their voices heard in downtown Kiev in April of 2014 - all to stand AGAINST the very socialism your teens might THINK they want.
Let them hear about the horrors of food shortages and even starvation that many in Ukraine suffered.
Let them hear the TRUTH behind the Chernobyl meltdown - the poster-event for socialism’s destructiveness, including the lack of care by the government for the safety of the people (when the meltdown was caused by government ineptitude and error).
Take them to a nation currently practicing the exact form of government the “Progressives” here in the US are working very hard to implement here: so-called “Democratic Socialism” - Try Venezuela - a nation with oil reserves big enough to lift that nation to greatness - yet the people are quite literally starving to death and many now have no water at all. Inflation is in the Thousands of percent and skyrocketing. Yes - Venezuela is the exact model Bernie Sanders was actively campaigning on just a couple years ago. Think the now-deceased Hugo Chavez.
Don’t try to protect them during formative years. My grandson is ten and wants to know about transgender, etc...They will hear about it. You want it to be from you.
My grandson is ten and knows what is going on, conservative as they come.
“Dad, what’s FICA?”
The article is very thoughtful. His kids are lucky to have a dad this firm in his convictions and also so considerate of their need to think things through for themselves.
My son turned 180 degrees and is now in the Proud Boys and is full bore supporting Trump. I asked him what it was that turned him around and he said it was the moment Trump said, “only Rosie O’Donnell”. . .He loved Trump’s big balls and the big honesty to tell it like it is regardless of what anyone thinks. Imagine that. . .I had been trying to convince my son for 30 years and Trump did it in one comment!! What a President!!
Living in Seattle we are surrounded by Liberals. And the public schools of course. It was (and is) a drag. The kids would come home and learn something and we would talk about it at dinner. (Yes- we always had dinner together around the table.) Lots of learning goes on there, and LOTS and LOTS of opportunities to teach.
“So - you gave up the pennies you found hidden to others that didn’t find as many. And what did that teach you?”
Having twins in different classes it was interesting. In one the teacher hid pennies around the room and the kids went looking. Of course some found a whole bunch, and others not so many. So then the teacher asked the kids what they should do to make it fair. Second grade or so.
My one daughter said “So we voted, and we all decided that those that had a lot would give some to those that didn’t have many, and we made it all fair!!”
The other daughter said “Yeah - that’s what we did too. But I didn’t think it was fair. Some boys were just goofing off and didn’t find any. I argued why should they get any? But of course I got out-voted.”
My other daughter looked at her and said “Hey - you’re RIGHT!” We had a long talk about just because things are equal doesn’t make it fair.
As lousy as it is in Seattle, all three of our kids are staunch Conservatives now, and prepared them for when they are on their own. The one goes a more conservative state for college. Lots of friends from small western towns have complained how liberal the college is. My daughter laughs. “I think it’s great - I bet 30% of the kids here are conservative! Back in High School it was me, my sister and about 4 other kids out of 700!”
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not depart from it.
The Liberals know this - we should too.
About 12 years ago I was hiring a person for a clerical position, and the interviews were done by a panel, one member being our Acting H.R. Director.
An absolutely gorgeous Latina candidate, with a Mexican-sounding last name, sat down for her interview. The H.R. Director said, “Well, I think it’s a plus that you speak Spanish.” (We were in SoCal.) The candidate’s response was quick: “I do NOT speak Spanish. I am an American!”
I hired her, and we’re friends to this day, long after my retirement.
Good stuff!
(I still don’t regret not having children. It sounds painful — on many levels. Maybe some day I’ll have regrets, but not so far at age 70.)
I haven't bought new tires in 30 years or so, since I found I could buy used tires with 90% or more of the tread installed and balanced for about a quarter or less the cost of new.
Very good explanation — and simple. Even a caveman could understand it. ;)
she speaks English Spanish and passable Russian. She was just “aggrieved” that b/c she looks Hispanic someone assumed she spoke Spanish.
I told her if she/I went to Russia, they’d assume I was the one that spoke Russian b/c of my looks. How can you be mad at this?
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