I recently read several news stories about a mother who was arrested for allowing her 7 year old son to walk to a park and play there unsupervised. The park was just 15 minutes away and her son had a cell phone. Another mother was arrested and jailed for having her two children wait in a car while she was having a job interview.
This brought to mind some of the things that Andy did with Opie that would definitely be considered very "bad parenting" today. Andy gave Opie a jack knife to carry around with him. Andy allowed Opie to be in his boat without wearing a life jacket. Andy allowed Opie to ride in the car without wearing a seatbelt. Later squad cars did have seat belts. Andy encouraged Opie to physically fight a bigger bully. Andy allowed Opie to ride his bike in the streets without wearing a helment. Andy allowed Opie to wander around Mayberry unsupervised and not knowing where he was. Andy allowed Opie to play with toy guns and pretend he was shooting people. Andy allowed Opie to bebriend hobos and other "questionable" people such as prisoners. Andy actually gave Opie a "whipping" when Opie disobeyed him. Isn't it a good thing that Opie grew up when he did. Otherwise he would have missed out on so many wonderful experiences that were just normal kid things to do back when Opie grew up. I should know. I grew up back then too, and I just about everyone of things listed above and I grew up to be a fairly normal, well adjusted person. ( OK, Dan Goodwin, that last statement might be stretching things a bit, but I am sure you understand the point I am trying to make.) -- Ken Anderson The Mayberry Guru 2906 May Street Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701 www.themayberryguru.com www.mayberryreflections.com _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
