21.8 F
Saint Paul
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Guiding principles for parents

Q. You said that you had practical advice for parents. What kind of advice?

A. Parenting lessons from a priest! What next? Poetry lessons from a computer programmer?

I’m not a father of small children. But I get to work with a lot of parents and their children, and I am the spiritual father to a lot of junior high, high school and college students. Because of that, I get to see the consequences of different parenting styles. Here are a few things that I have observed and a few questions that are worth asking.

Why do you have the rules that you have? I once trained with an organization called the National Outdoor Leadership School. The primary goal of this group was to train people to survive in the wilderness and to be able to teach others to do the same. The founder was a unique man named Paul Pezoldt. One of his sayings was “rules are for fools.”

For those of us in our late teens and early 20s participating in this school, the idea was quite appealing. But thinking back, they had plenty of rules. The National Outdoor Leadership School embraced the principles of “Leave No Trace” and minimal impact camping. When it came to mountaineering, they were incredibly serious and disciplined regarding exactly how we climbed or rappelled mountain faces.

- Advertisement -

This school used rules, but they prided themselves on this fact: None of the rules were arbitrary. They were based on sound wilderness and climbing safety principles. There were good reasons for their existence.

It is often easier to have arbitrary rules when it comes to families or companies or parishes. These can even be good rules. Having a bedtime, getting homework done or completing chores before playtime are all good, but at some point those rules will come into conflict with some other good. At some point, young people will push back against these rules. That is only natural.

Here is the issue: If you don’t know why a rule exists, you will find yourself trapped by it. First, as your children begin to think critically, they will want to know the “why” behind the rule. If you don’t know why, you can’t tell them why. Second, if there is no known “why,” when negotiation is necessary (and you have probably discovered that there are times when it is necessary) the negotiation is based off how much sleep you got the previous night, not necessarily on what is best or most fair.

Third, when your rules are arbitrary, it is really difficult to know why you are enforcing them at any given moment. I’m sure that every parent has had those times when you just “let it slide this one time.” That’s probably fine, but wouldn’t you rather have a reason why you enforce the rule this time and don’t enforce it another time? When rules grow out of intentional principles, they may still be challenged or broken, but you will not have any doubt about whether they should be there.

We want a personal life committed to excellence and holiness. I think that all parents learn (like all priests quickly learn), that giftedness is limited. All parents make mistakes. No parent is perfect. People cannot merely parent out of their giftedness, they have to parent out of character. Therefore, while there is something incredibly valuable about growing in your parenting gifts and knowledge, one’s personal character is indispensable.

All parents get it wrong. But God is not calling you to parent out of fear of getting it wrong; he is calling you to parent out of a place of humble confidence and love. God has entrusted his children to your temporary care. Love them like he loves them.

Father Schmitz is director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Duluth and chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Reach him at fathermikeschmitz@gmail.com.

 


Related Articles

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

Trending

- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
12,743FansLike
1,478FollowersFollow
6,479FollowersFollow
35,922FollowersFollow
583SubscribersSubscribe
- Advertisement -