When our children were little, Sir Knight coined a phrase he called "Credit Card Parenting". Basically, he said that we could either discipline and train our children when they were young or we could pay for our lack of parenting later, with interest. We knew, that although it was "easy to love folly in a child", that folly would become a consuming fire of destruction if left unchecked. What was "cute" in somebody who was 2 was ugly and destructive in someone who was 22. We didn't want to suffer the consequences of credit card parenting or make society pay the price, with accrued interest, of our permissive parenting. And so we disciplined our children, doing our best to "train up a child in the way they should go". And so far our plan has worked. Although our children are not perfect, they are productive members of society, contributing to the well-being of our family and our community. The are consistently part of the solution rather than being part of the problem.
To my great dismay, I have come to realize that we are a Credit Card Nation. This once great Nation has become what our forefathers fought to abolish. We have allowed the few to rule the many and encouraged tyranny (bullying) in all levels of society. Just as a tyrannical toddler rules the household, our tyrannical minorities are ruling our country. We are no longer allowed to live according to our conscience, rather our thoughts and actions are policed by the intolerant few. Just as we have all seen permissive parents terrorized by tantrum throwing toddlers, we are now witness to a country being terrorized by angry malcontents and still, we indulge.
For years we have allowed our citizens to be bullied and done nothing. We have allowed tantrum throwing children to rule our house and we wonder why we have a world out of control. Our balance is now due - with interest.
Not only have we allowed our own citizens to run herd on us, we have also allowed our neighbors to manipulate our indulgence. And the interest is multiplying.
When our children were small, we lived in a neighborhood, directly across from a culdesac. Although we only had a couple of acres, we had horses, chickens and a milk cow, along with a large garden, huge yard and the all-important trampoline. Right across the road, at the head of the culdesac, lived a family with 6 children. The family was unconventional - a little rough around the edges, and the children were the epitome of free-range. It was not uncommon for the kids to show up on our doorstep asking for paper and pencils for school, bread for sandwiches or money for lunch. They regularly went into our barn, opened our grain bin and fed our milk cow until she bloated. They would fill their pockets with change Maid Elizabeth had saved and swear up and down it was theirs.
Sir Knight and I took action. We didn't want to ban the children from coming to our home, but we also didn't want them harming our livestock or influencing our children. So we made rules. And enforced them. We told them they were not allowed in the barn, without Sir Knight or I present. We didn't let them come over whenever they wanted, rather we made a standing date for a certain time and day of the week. We never allowed the kids into the bedrooms or any other room unattended. Instead, the kids and I played board games with them or baked cookies (which they took home to their family). We raked leaves, worked in the garden or did whatever needed to be done, with the extra kids in tow - always with constant supervision. Rather than allow the neighbor kids to harm our property and influences our children, we embraced them, within the confines of carefully outlined and enforced rules. Because we were the parents in our home, we parented not only our children, but the neighborhood children when they were in our home. Basically, it was our house, our rules. End of story. Rather than allowing our neighbor children to terrorize our family, we parented them and paid the debt - no interest accrued.
Now the credit card crisis has hit our shores. We have welcomed our neighbors into our homes, with no rules or supervision and we are reaping the consequences. Rather than creating and enforcing rules to incorporate our neighbors into our family, we have allowed them full access to our homes and they have repaid us by bombing our cities, shooting our people and demanding that our society conform to theirs. We are paying for being a credit card nation with our culture and our lives. And it will continue until we pay our debt and take back our home. We have to again proclaim, our house, our rules.
Our nation is at the breaking point. Our debt is killing us. Our interest has compounded. We truly are a Credit Card Nation.
