Comic Control Panel!
 
 

“Growing Pains” was born on September 20th, 2004.  My sister talks about wearing “kid gloves” to refer to a way of speaking to kids so that you don’t actually have to tell them anything, and anything you do tell them is no more blunt than a shooter marble.  I think adults grossly underestimate a child’s ability to understand things and make up his own mind about things.  Parents seem to be in the indoctrination business more than they are in the rearing business.  The distinction?  Indoctrination is spoon-feeding children maxims without bothering to explain where the maxims come from, and scolding any deviation from the maxim blindly without situational considerations.  Rearing is steering children towards maxims with explanations for those maxims, but allowing them the freedom to deviate when they arrive at different maxims as a result of their own individual thought process.  Sadly, adults seem to take great pride in rearing mini-thems, and consequently the capacity for persnal growth is seriously retarded in most humans.