On The Horns of a Moral Dilemma

I always as a child thought that the choices that adults made were cut and dry. Really, to me it seemed that answers consisted of either, yes or no. But now as an adult, I know that answer variations between the negative and the positive extremes are infinite. So how does one really know that a decision made on a child’s behalf is the best decision? The truth is that one does not know for sure. All a person can do is to rely on whether a situation raises your hackles enough to be passionate about your conviction and then follow your conviction, all the while asking God to guide your resultant decision.

Scenario 1

At a dance studio, class is already in session. One little girl comes half an hour late unaccompanied by her parent and is told by the office personnel that she is too late to participate in the class. Therefore, she stands quietly and awaits the start of the next class to join her peers. Ten minutes later, a parent comes hurrying in with a child. It has already been established that this child is related to both the office personnel and the dance teacher. The parent does not stop. He ushers the child unto the dance floor and she blends right into the class uninhibited. Now the reason that the office personnel gives for not admitting the first child is that; the class has already started to grasp the lesson and interruptions will break the unit’s concentration not to mention that the teacher will have to update the new entrant on the whole routine that was missed.

Did that premise not hold for their relative? As an observant parent should you not have stood up for the disadvantaged child’s interest in her parents’ absence or at least question the officer about it? Left unchallenged, would that type of preferential treatment be meted out against your child in your absence? Is it your obligation to fight other people’s battles unrequested? Do you have a right to question the administration’s traditions in their dance studio with their pupils? Do you defend the child who also notices the favoritism and clearly feels slighted?

Scenario 2

A child has a playmate that is a lot older. The Parents are wary from the start of the friendship that while it might be good for the older child to stay in the company a younger more naïve playmate, the younger child is being prematurely exposed to the pre-teenisms of the older child.

So what are the parents to do? Allow the younger child’s innocence to be eroded by a more world wary pre-teen or perhaps diminish the older child’s opportunity to be a questionable influence while appearing to be the villains of the neighborhood?

What are your options as you sit languishing on the horns of a moral dilemma? Those who stand for nothing will sit for any and everything.

Selah.