Friday, July 27, 2012

The Horse Bug

There are two things I need to share:

1. a couple years ago we were in a shopping center parking lot - he went in to the store, I stayed with the boys in the trailer. I had opened the doors for them so they could really have a good look outside. A young woman and her 7(?)-year old daughter wanted to see the horses and I said sure. The daughter said she wanted one. The mother said, "You'll have to find someone who will give you one." Wha?? I'm now at the age where I don't really have to keep my mouth shut. I said, "She's a girl! She can get her own horse, like I did." What kind of lesson is the mother teaching her daughter? She was definitely too young to be from the generation that discouraged girls from playing with insects and wanting to be an astronaut.

2. In the early 1960s a 13-year old wanted a horse and her parents said if she came up with half the sale price they would match it. I'm guessing that the parents thought that it would take so long to save the money, by that time she would have changed her mind. However, it didn't take her long to get the cash and the parents were shocked. When they found out how she raised the money they were devastated. At the time my own mother said, "If you want something in the worst way, that's usually how you get it."

Occassionally parents can effectively kill the 'horse bug,' other times it only encourages them. And sometimes there just is no cure and resistance is futile.

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