My brother tackled me last weekend about where we live. He has concerns that my children will end up wearing track suits all day every day and on remand in the district court. We had a robust discussion on the influence of parents versus that of peers, the nature of the local peers in what I would call a mixed area and whether it was fair to visit your social notions on your children which ended with one of us flouncing out of the room and banging the door. Isn’t it great the way when you are at your parents’ house you can revert to behaviour that was last given an airing in your teens?
Still, it all gave me pause for further thought. Our parish newsletter this week led with “The Gospel to the Gangland” which didn’t help. Then I went to a local park where F often takes the children. There were a bunch of Slovakian children there who seemed to know mine well. They were nice children and my boys were clearly delighted to see them. They were accompanied by a pleasant man (you know, not let out on their own running wild or anything) but I couldn’t help noticing that he had a tattoo on his neck. Did I not read somewhere that this is an invariable sign of gang membership? Or is it just a sign of a fondness for pain? In short, I feel that I am in territory where my mother never had to venture.
Oh go on, which one of you flounced?
I would have thought that the rational gang member who was involved in illegal activity would have more sense than to advertise that fact indelibly on a visible part of their skin. But what do I know. FWIW, educational attainment in children is most closely linked to the educational attainment of their mother so if they do end up in remand, they’ll be the only ones capable of conducting their own defence…
I would also think that their peers are likely to be their school friends and that one of the advantages of the Gaelscoileanna is that all the children have parents who at minimum are sufficiently interested in their children’s education to have made a decision about their school. That’s a bit longwinded but I hope you see what I mean.
In a more rural area your kids would mix with whoever was around. Only in cities can the upper middle classes have the sort of enclave your brother perhaps thinks preferable.
TM, hard to guess really. Yes, all true about mother’s educational level. Clearly, now is the time to sign up for a Ph.D.
Eimear, I do indeed see what you mean. I see you were v. tactful about my brother too. I do love him and my children adore him even though we consistently fail to see eye to eye on many matters. I suppose that’s what families are for. That and the opportunity to flounce.