As a Filipino magician providing family type entertainment and birthday party magic shows in Metro Manila, I belong to several online e-groups and forums. I consider the parent members of these groups my prospective clients. Discussing with them the difficult buy enjoyable task of raising a family keeps me attuned to their needs. It allows me also to offer better services.

A couple of days ago, in one of those e-groups, somebody brought up an article written by Manila Times columnist Bob Garon.

In his column, Bob Garon writes, “The preschooler was very agitated. He wanted a toy on the shelf of the department store and was very insistent in his demands. When the mother chose to ignore him and continued to walk away, he ran up behind her and with his little fist hit her leg. Of course, he did not hurt her, but what was surprising was the mother’s reaction. She did nothing. She did not turn and reprimand him. She just ignored his outburst and kept that she missed an opportunity to teach her child to respect his elders, his parents. I could not help thinking ahead and wondering what would become of this child when he grows up. If he isn’t corrected, it does not take a genius to conclude that he will have a troubled future.”

If Bob Garon were a magician, he would have not used the word genius. Instead he would have used the word psychic.

There lies the difference between Bob Garon and me. I’m a magician and mentalist. (I read people’s mind and “future” for entertainment). This time, though, I will use neither my magic nor psychic powers. I’ll just use the expert knowledge I achieved through the Zen enlightenment of raising five children.

So let me take a shot at this topic sans my powers…

I think the mother who failed to reprimand his preschooler after he hit her must be an advocate of a newfangled parenting principle that proposes something like this: Fuss over the child’s good deed but ignore his bad behavior. Over the long run, the child, through some mystical means, will become a well-adjusted, God-fearing, law-abiding citizen.

A child psychologist with an unhappy childhood as one of his credentials must have invented this child-rearing principle. It’s so alien to me it makes me feel like wanting to dance the fandango each time I hear parents bandy it about.

According to my maven-level child-rearing knowledge, preschoolers who grow in no-discipline homes will one day form a party list. They will field their own candidates. When they win a seat in Congress, they will file a bill outlawing parental reprimand. Once the bill takes effect, Mommies caught telling Junior, “Don’t talk while your mouth is full!” will be hauled to jail. Not a pretty sight but immensely delightful to psychologists with oven-fresh child-rearing theories.

I don’t know if similar laws have been passed in other countries. If they have, I can’t imagine the havoc the law has wreaked on the social fabric of those countries. My mind is too boggled from reading the news of children bringing guns to school and shooting their classmates and teachers by the dozens. They usually do it during class hours.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com