We are still learning on that!

I can only hope that the values we instill into her today, will stay with her as she grows, and that some of those nasty little girls in the schoolyard (and later in life) don’t destroy the seeds we have sown.

I don’t think you set them up in the LEAST bit for a life of “Downtrodden Servitude” but as I said, as they mature it falls to them to figure out the “Dos and Don’ts” of society and themselves. If you ask me and I’m 26 mind you, I think too many Girls and Boys of the generations AFTER me are self-absorbed, spoiled, little brats who seriously need to be put in their place and serious attitude adjustment. I have observed too many show complete blatant disregard for their fellow man and it’s truly sad that THIS is the world we live in now. They think THEY are the most important people to ever walk the Earth and yet have not appreciation for life, especially their own. Not truly. Too many parents spoiling their children, giving them what they didn’t have and THEN forgetting the most crucial thing of all, “Character Building”. Least that is one of the key elements I feel I have discerned from what is missing in the big puzzle.

That’s my thoughts and two cents. People can take it or leave it, think I’m crazy or blowing smoke outta my butt but there it is.

I hope you are right and being nice will be still OK when my kids are adults – as long as they can get out of the unhappy situations like you said.

I think you still raise kids to be nice. Then they have a chance to find other genuinely nice people and those people become their good friends. I think you also need to teach your kids about how to know when to get out of a situation that makes them unhappy. If you’re nice to somebody over and over again, and you start feeling taken advantage of – the answer isn’t to be mean, it’s to get out of that situation. That’s my opinion anyway 🙂

Random Almost Related Story: There’s this guy from Houston who’s 33 who was on a project in NYC with me. He made a comment about how he was proud of himself because he bumped into somebody on the street and didn’t even say sorry – the true NYC way. I looked at him in shock. I told him he should hold his ground and say sorry because that’s what he was raised to do. You don’t try to “blend in” with the culture. (Aside: does this make New Yorkers mean? No, I think it makes them in a hurry….)

Hi Jacqueline – I copied your post – my commenting button is in the wrong place at the start of the post – so you wrote on the post after. Firstly, thank you for taking the time to vist – my blog just became a lot more serious in my youngest daughter’s eyes because the author of her favourite books just commented – you’ve awarded me serious brownie points!

Since I began blogging in October last year I’ve got to say I’ve been shocked by some of the behaviour on social media. While we are drilling our children about cyber-bullying etc adults are taking part in it every day. It seems without face-to-face contact people are losing their sense of good behaviour and feeling free to express whatever cruel thought crosses their mind.

I’m glad you are creating books which feature goodness and kindness (and that are very loved by the children who read them) and I hope our world allows those with kindness and empathy to succeed.

For anyone who would like to know more about Jacqueline’s books her website is http://jacquelineharvey.com.au/.

Trying to give a good example of “standing up and being counted” is really important. I hope our society continues to raise civilised people, and I am glad there are teachers like yourself on the job helping that to happen.

That’s the challenge isn’t raising girls to be strong without being mean or uncaring? It is very important they don’t let others walk all over them and sometimes that’s a fine line.