tomim, We’ll see. Hopefully you’re right. I have explained to my kids that it’s dangerous and not tznius to talk to men other than relatives and the police are only there for emergencies. Hopefully, it will work.
You have to understand something. When a child goes into the street, a mother can hit the child (yes, I do believe in hitting in such instances), and take the child into the house and explain this is a punishment for running into the street.
But a older child talking to strangers when everybody around them is doing it, is a different situation. You cannot punish the child in front of everybody and I don’t think taking away priviliges is the right thing to do as a child can become obstinate and it’s not wise to make a bigger issue about this.
Therefore I asked if people have any ideas on how to make kids comply out of their own free will-not because of a power struggle which I don’t think is wise in this situaton. But it doesn’t seem that people have any creative ideas here.
Hopefully, with Hashem’s help, my children will be smart enough to understand that it’s important not to chat with strangers as we have discussed and will act differently than all the neighborhood kids the next time this situation comes up.
And I’m still thinking of ideas how to help my kids make the right choices out of their own free will – not because they were coerced to do so.
Discipline IS important, but you cannot fight all the time. you have to be wise and know that different situations call for different implementations.
Actually, I like that sentence – different situations call for different implementations.