I like to let her feed her interests, but I'm pretty uncomfortable with her going this direction. Sweatshops are cruel. And she's pretty sweet and innocent. When I tried to dissuade her she told me that this would help her be a better person and lean to do the right things, but in terms of material, this is definitely as dark as she's gone, which concerns me too. Thoughts about that?
Thanks.
No advice, as you know your child best-- but--
this is a road that led to my DD9 doing a very involved research paper in middle school... on...
The Righteous of Nations. Altruism like that
fascinated her-- so much so that she INSISTED on watching Schindler's List at ten years old.
It was an obsession that simply would not die until it had run its course.
Honestly? She knew better than we did. It
meant something to her to know that while those people are a minority, a few people
will sacrifice everything for people they barely know-- or don't know at all. Altruism like that? My DD feels that kind of pull to
do for other people, and she needed to know that it wasn't pathological in the least, and that under some conditions, it
matters. A lot.
Anyway-- just thought that I'd reassure you that while it may seem very dark (even morbid?) to you, my daughter knows an awful lot about the resistance movements throughout Europe-- including those in the Balkans, where Muslims sheltered Jews as often as Christians did. I had no idea.
My DD never lost her sweetness. It never made her cynical or bitter in the least-- but if anything, it deepened her own commitment to be true to her inner compass that tells her that some things are just
wrong.Do you know what I mean by that?
I suspect that for some HG+ kiddos with extreme social justice leanings, this is a necessary part of their development in a Dabrowskian sense; I think it helps them to build a framework of awareness of the world around themselves.
Some kids are too
sensitive to do it, of course, at this young an age. However, some of them can manage far more serious content than we give them credit for.
My DD is one of the most compassionate and empathetic human beings I know. She is also (paradoxically?) one of the most capable when it comes to not letting her emotional responses get in the way of doing the right thing for other people. She's
tough emotionally, and she always has been.
