AS a child I don’t remember ever having to ask my dad or my mother, money for my daily needs. All the money that was needed for the day lay in a small glass bowl. It looked after bus fares, the loaf of bread for the evening, vegetables for the night’s dinner and all the other things needed to run the house.
Never did my dad call me and ask, “Bob what happened to the money I put in this morning?” The glass bowl in our house was the symbol of trust. It was a silent assurance that a dad and mom trusted their two children completely. I recollected our glass bowl this morning when I read this story:
Ten year old Premnath was beginning to acquire a reputation for taking things that didn’t belong to him. The principal was told about it and his parents were also summoned and warned. But Premnath’s teacher decided to do things differently, she didn’t scold him or hold him before the rest of the class as a bad example. Instead she turned her purse over to him and asked him to go to the store and be her shopper! She told him he could do her shopping as well as she could, couldn’t he?
When a much surprised Premnath returned, he offered to count the change before turning over the purse, but the teacher told him it wasn’t necessary. She was sure it was correct. A later examination showed her to be right. Each day thereafter she found him an errand to do and to the class she held him up as a good example of a trustworthy boy, which indeed he had become. Reading this story and the method used by the wise teacher brought back memories of my own little glass bowl and how it had worked at home. How easy it is for us to be a little too careful. We don’t allow our children to handle our wallet thinking a few notes may disappear. What we need to do is to show them we trust them. Often it’s not just kids. The suspicious wife who doesn’t allow her husband a late night out with his friends; the man who stands outside his wife’s office waiting for the office party to get over; all need to practice the glass bowl effect.
Let your child handle your wallet; he’ll grow up to be an honest citizen. Allow your husband a late night or two with his friends; he may have a drink or two but the trust you have in him will prevent him from hiding and drinking and becoming an alcoholic. Same with you suspicious husbands and boyfriends; built trust. The glass bowl in our house was the symbol of trust. It was a silent assurance that a dad and mom trusted their two children completely..!
