by EVEliason

Created on: May 23, 2008

Should children be allowed to visit or tour prisons? The American parent today is far more limited on what methods they can use to correct their child/children's behavior, than the American parent of years gone by. Their own communities have, so to speak, turned against the "old fashioned" parenting methods of the past and focused on practicing other, less effective, methods that tend to sometimes mislead children. Social Services, police departments, schools, teachers, bus drivers, child care workers and even neighbors have been playing a hidden role in the misrepresentation of reality to our children.

As a result American children have been growing up, for quite some time now, with a false sense of freedom that is all too misguided. Unfortunate, indeed, is the child that believes he or she will be allowed (by the American Legal System, local school systems, churches, governmental agencies, etc.,) to do as he or she pleases-whenever he or she wants to. For that child has been presented, by all around him or her, with a very misleading view of the reality they truly live in.

More and more children today are experiencing low self esteem, failing in school, being pressured by their peers, becoming addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, becoming parents at an early age, committing crimes; the list of choices with negative consequences goes on and on. As concerned parents, some of us desperately try every method available in the hopes that our children learn to make more productive choices. However, some children just don't seem to fully understand the consequences of their actions until they become adults and are then forced to face the numerous limitations that are a very real part of their misguided choices and actions.

So how does a parent correct their child/children's behavior? With so many limitations imposed on parents today, what exactly can parents do to guide their child/children towards a better way life? How do parents get across the reality that children can, and probably will, be arrested when they commit crimes against society? That illegal drug use can, and almost always will, lead to other more devastating consequences than a curable addiction? That sexual promiscuity has more complex consequences than gaining a "bad or loose" reputation? That there are consequences with far more complex and sinister outcomes, than they can possibly imagine?

Accepting that not all hope is lost is the first step. Sometimes a dose of reality might just be the best tool

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