The entire point of my post is that, despite what looked on the outside like the best possible odds for 'socialization' to work, it clearly didn't. Socialization 9 times out of 10 means everyone falls to the lowest common denominator. My peer group was FAR from the worst, but the outcome was still just enabling bad behavior. My kids will turn out great by being homeschooled. Your's will learn how to be faggots and coal burners.
The point of socialization isn't to get some magic pixie dust on you from other people to make you a successful good person. Socialization is to learn how to deal with other people and their personalities. When you have a large group dynamic children get to learn how to deal with assholes, nice people, bossy people, shy people. etc. They work together to invent games, develop agreements to change the rules, work out a rudimentary justice system (like kicking people out of the game who won't play nice), and they learn to resolve disputes amongst themselves. Those are all critical skills to develop in childhood that can't be developed playing with 1 or 2 friends very well.
We should all be able to choose our friends. Kids included. Do you want to hang out with jerks just so you can get better at dealing with them? It seems silly for adults to live this way. Life throws plenty of opportunities for us to deal with losers and jerks. Why put your kids in a situation where they have to deal with that day-in-day-out. Frankly, that’s a demoralizing setup, not a way for them to grow.
We should all be able to choose our friends. Kids included.
Precisely. Having your parents pre-select your friends is shit.
Do you want to hang out with jerks just so you can get better at dealing with them? It seems silly for adults to live this way. Life throws plenty of opportunities for us to deal with losers and jerks. Why put your kids in a situation where they have to deal with that day-in-day-out. Frankly, that’s a demoralizing setup, not a way for them to grow.
The only way NOT to hang out with jerks is to have somebody pre-screen the playground pool first. Your idea of a jerk and my idea of a jerk may not be the same. Kids need to figure it out for themselves. The shitty generation we see today is precisely because of parents doing everything for their kids. They played life on easy mode.
Kids need to learn how to deal with jerks before they encounter one as an adult for the first time and you see college students crying and begging for "safe spaces." Coddling kids is how you make useless garbage human
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