Looking for Experienced Parental Advice'at the cross roads of *making it or breaking'

[krsna]

 

by Karunamayi devi dasi

 

Posted November 1, 2005

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

My son is turning 10 soon and has been leaning more and more towards non-devotional interests. I feel as though I am at the cross roads of *making it or breaking it*, so to speak. It is a fine line between encouraging and forcing the issues of spirituality. He is in public school and our entire extended family are non-devotees, however, respectful regarding diet.

 

For example, we personally do not listen to non devotional music, however, he is really pressing to be able to listen to whatever he likes, within reason. Perhaps I have an illogical fear that if I give him an inch, he'll fall in. His birth father, who is not a devotee, yet generally respectful, said that if I don't allow some leniency, it will cause him to rebel all together and sneak what he wants anyways.

 

I would appreciate hearing from parents who have experienced this realm and come through it, successfully or not, depending on how they view parenting success.

 

Thank you so much!

 

Your aspiring servant, Karunamayi devi dasi karunamayi.rns@gmail.com

[Guest guest]

We have seen some success in exposing ten year old rebels to Krishna conscious retreats where lots of fired up kirtan is held ...in the mountains. Also try playing some Sri Prahlad kirtans and Polish festival where lotsa youth are involved and these people simply enjoy kirtan and KC. Take him to big feasts in dev association....allow friendship opportunities amidst nice devotees. He may change his perception of what role models he is looking for in life.

[krsna]

Nice post:

 

wherein good advice is given

for helping you people avoid going off the rails.

 

Yepp

Gotta give'em the Higher Taste Of Krsna

or they'll be stuck with the lower taste of maya.

[krsna]

 

by Karunamayi devi dasi

 

Posted November 6, 2005

 

I wanted to take a moment to thank each of you who took the time to write to me and reveal support, experiences and advice to me for helping my son on this path. Putting all these wonderful letters together, I think I pretty much have the key to perfect parenting! Now, I only need to work very hard on myself and my execution of these wonderful suggestions.

 

I have two requests:

 

First: I surpisingly received letters from our very dear "children of Krishna". I, for some reason, didn't anticipate this. Being 31, I am not much older than some of you, but my upbringing was very different. These letters held a tremendous amount of strength in terms of what it is that our kids NEED in life, spiritually and materially. I really appreciate those letters and the time that was taken to write and send them. I would love to hear from more of our dear Children of Krishna. I am truly appreciating hearing the good and the bad to help me find my footing to do what is best for my son. The goal is to LOVE Krishna.

 

Second: These letters (about 50 of them so far) are so powerful, each of them, I am asking permission to compile the points, anonymously, to share with my local community.

 

The experiences, advice, practical day to day application, what my parents did wrong, what my parents did right, etc... is amazing! I have been receiving a gold mine in my inbox and I don't feel that I should keep it to myself.

 

With the permission of the devotees who have kindly taken the time to write to me, who are in the process of writing or who would like to write, I would like to put this together and make it available to others.

 

Thank you so much for assisting me in my role as Mata. I would love to share the wisdom of your experiences with other pitas and matas.

 

Your aspiring servant, Karunamayi devi dasi

karunamayi.rns@gmail.com