Blanket Time?
Where was I? I had never heard of this. Anyone know if this is advocated at all GC churches?
Here’s the beauty of it: now you can go to any meeting anywhere, pull out your blanket and have your kids play quietly while you talk to a friend, attend a class at church, or sign papers.
My translation of this philosophy: Your kids are there to serve you. Sometimes they are a real pain and make noise while you are trying to do other things. As we all know, the goal of parenting is to make your life easier and shut your kids up. Here is a handy tip on how you can get your kids to serve you better.
Of course children need boundaries, as do we all. There are plenty of opportunities to set REAL boundaries with children. You don't have to make them up. Here are a few:
Don't stand up in your high chair.
Don't crawl up the stairs.
Don't run into the street.
Don't take toys from other children.
Don't throw your food.
Don't eat that plant.
Don't play with the outlets.
God doesn't tempt us and I think it is profoundly unwise to set up situations where we are setting artificial boundaries and tempting children to go outside them for the purpose of "training". I don't buy it as a training tool.
Wow. I had no idea.
Also, I haven't read Dare to Discipline for years, but I actually recall that he specifically said that discipline was for blatant disobedience and not for children doing what children do. I remember one example in the book was about little ones wanting to explore their world. They love colorful things and put everything in their mouth, etc. He said that a wise parent would understand this and not put things like fancy colorful breakable teacups within the reach of a child because it would just tempt a child and "force" a discipline situation that was unnecessary. Simply put the teacups up higher. But, again, that was an old edition and I haven't read it in years.
