That Guy: No kidding, child rule opens their potential

Opinion

As you know, I love getting your emails, letters and occasional fax.

Here is a selection of some of the worst ones.

Dear Leigh,

What do you think about this furore over supermarkets charging for plastic bags?
Kenny, Grey Lynn

To be honest Kenny, I don't really care as my wife does all the shopping.

Dear Leigh,

Do you think David Bain should get items of evidence back, like the rifle, after all he is the rightful owner?
Steve, Maramarua

I don't have any major concerns with it, but they should probably hang on to the bullets. (They could be beyond their use-by date and be potentially hazardous)

Dear Leigh,

Do you think Michael Laws is out of line with his response to the school children having their "own" opinion on the spelling of Wanganui?
Lynn Grey, Otaki

Personally, Lynn, I think children should have a far greater say in what happens in this country.

My wife and I consult our children on just about everything.

I have let my 4-year-old son decide what school he wants to go to next year.

Admittedly it means we have to relocate to Nelson, and I am going to be unemployed for a while until I get a new job, but I think it teaches him valuable life skills.

I just hope that he doesn't suddenly change his mind and decide that he doesn't want to go to school at all because then I will look pretty stupid.

In addition to this, our 2-year-old daughter is showing early leadership already.

She is picking her own bedtimes, meal choices and the time and place of where she'll have her tantrums.

We even let our kids decide which way we would vote on the "smacking referendum".

Ironically they couldn't actually read the forms so I had to randomly smack one of them to demonstrate what our decision was all about.

The funny thing is, one voted for and the other against, so in this rare case, mum and dad had the final say.

Through us allowing them to make their own decisions they are almost parenting themselves.

I can only imagine what they will be capable of when they are adults.

To be honest, I believe that children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way.

We shouldn't be getting in the way of their opinions, and amazing decision-making abilities.

To bring it back to the original issue of the correct spelling of "Wanganui", I think the children have underestimated their abilities to effect change.

This "Wanganui" situation might be the catalyst for a spelling revolution.

Why should children be worrying about the spelling of a word like Wanganui, a word that they seldomly use anyway?

Why not focus more on the everyday words they are constantly mis-spelling in class tests.

Why not change those words to the way they spell or, in this case, mis-spell them.

In my case it would have been "tomorrow" (tommorow), "Wednesday" (Wensday), and "conceive" (concieve).

The last one is your classic "i" before "e" except after "c" blunder.

Hope all that helps.

I have to leave it there as my daughter wants to use the computer.