Friday, October 5, 2007

Sermon Sign: Postmodern Parenting

I saw a sign on a church billboard: Postmodern Parenting -- What is the the right thing to do? I was confused, mainly from the idea of postmodern parenting. Postmodern, to me, had to do with lack of structure or rules, free form. To think a postmodern philosophy would be used in parenting would be asking for trouble. The more I research I see the pattern developing to indicate that children need more structure from parents for effective development. If postmodern parenting doesn't promote structure, where is a child to receive it? Also, if a child doesn't get it in the formative years, the door starts to close on certain positive behaviors that evolve from structure.

I considered contacting the minister of the church that displayed the sign for the sermon, but I thought that might end up with me receiving an impromptu sermon as well as an invitation to hear a live sermon.

I must admit the sign also caught my attention because I believe many parents are using the postmodern approach with their children. Actually, I see parents operating at either extremes: too controlling or too unstructured. Regardless, I think in many cases our society has failed to hold parents accountable enough. The recent proposal by the Escambia County School District (FL) to hold parents more accountable for students' school attendance--including jailing parents for students' excess absences--is a good start.

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