Meet the firefighters.

My two middle kids got to meet our local firefighters yesterday.  No, they were not on a field trip.  Neither had they burned anything to the ground.  Thank heavens for that.  They were, however, hanging loose up by the highway(posted speed:55 mph) waving sticks around enough to make passersby think that they were throwing things at cars.  My kids were unphased by being disciplined by the firemen.  In fact, when they arrived home (a full hour later) they were quick to show off the shiny stickers they had given them during their little discussion about safety.

Personally, if I had been disciplined by a person in uniform at age 8 or 10, I probably would have burst into tears.  In fact, I cried well into adulthood each and every time I was pulled over by a cop for speeding(and yes, it has been multiple times).  Whose kids are these?

I asked them if they thought hanging out by a busy highway was a good idea.  They said, "probably not."  I asked them if they needed a rule to tell them that, or could they have figured that out on their own.  They replied, "we sorta knew that already."  I asked them if they had done anything else while they were playing with friends that probably wasn't a great idea.  They responded that they had crawled into the drainage tunnel that goes under the highway.  I repeated the previous question, just to check and see if my kids needed to be commanded in all things or if they could have made a better choice without explicit guidance from an adult.  They assured me that they would make wiser choices next time.

I'm a strong advocate for giving my kids instruction, teaching them what it means to follow their consciences to make good choices and then giving them the freedom to do so.  Man, though, do I question the wisdom in that type of parenting when they pull stunts like this.  Man, do I.