At 02:44 PM 2/17/01 -0800, you wrote:
Paul,
In response to an inappropriate or possibly harmful action of the child,
the caretaker (ideally) responds both to the act (refusing the candy;
assisting the doctor) and to the child -- responding to the child's fear or
pain with physical and other expressions of reassurance; to the child's
pleas for candy with (in the case of the middle class parent) strategic
negotiation.
>Anyone who has raised a child, when they refuse to allow them to eat all
>their Halloween candy the same night they bring it home, to allow the doctor
>to put a needle in their arm, and on and on and on.
>
>It doesn't mean that one doesn't feel the child's fear, pain, etc. it
>simply means that the awareness of that emotion doesn't provide the basis
>for the right (the moral) action.
>
>One could continue such examples without end.
>
>Paul H. Dillon
>
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>
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