How Were You Raised? (Short Story)

Imagine if you will, four children. Picture the first child peering out the window of his home, watching other children playing outside, eager to join them. He runs to the front door, but his parents stand in the way, “No! There is danger out there.” The first child is not free to go outside, because he has learned from his parents that the world is dangerous and possibly bad. The child now lives in fear and doesn’t want to ever go outside. He is imprisoned. 

The second child grows up in a home where his parents never taught him about the outside world. He was expected to figure it out on his own. Every day the second child would rush out the door and explore all that the outside world had to offer him due to his curiosity. The second child did not have his free-will taken from him like the first child, but was raised with no guidance on how one ought to live, and what was morally good or bad. His parents were never around and did not have much interest in the child’s life. The child used his free-will to go down a path that no child should ever experience, and he began to see life as a burden and curse. This led the child to his room, locking the door behind him, never wanting to go outside again. The second child too is imprisoned. 

The third child grows up with ‘helicopter parents.’ They would take the child outside, but treat him like a dog on a collar. When the child would want to explore in a direction that may not be good for them, the parents would yank the child back, “choking” him in a sense. This child is surely not going to taste danger, but his taste of the good isn’t very enjoyable because the good has been forced upon him, and ‘shoved down his throat’ so to speak, without his own free-will to choose. The only time the child would be taken off his ‘leash’ would be when he was in his ‘crate,’ his home, with the door locked. This child is ‘chained’ to the good without his choice because he didn’t freely choose the good for himself. So, one day he begins to rebel and choose the bad out of bitterness and resentment. The third child too is imprisoned. 

Finally, the fourth child. The parents did not squash the child’s free-will to choose good or bad but wisely instructed him about good and evil. They taught the child that the outside world is very good but also cautioned him that some abuse it’s goodness, creating ‘danger.’ When the child went outside, he wasn’t afraid or scrupulous ‘walking on eggshells,’ but played joyfully. He played out of a secure identity knowing who he was and that he was loved and could trust that his parent’s education about life was for his good. Yes, the parents knew the child could and even would get hurt, whether physically or emotionally etc, but the child knew his parents would embrace him whenever he fell or was in pain. He trusted. His parents would then encourage the child to get back up, to not be afraid, because the good is worth fighting for!