h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

--When I was 13, my father used to escort me to community dances, to make certain no member of the opposite sex would 'try anything'.
I remember his weekly warning, administered just before I drifted towards the dance floor:
"Don't dance with any boy who wears a big coat; that's how sweet little girls become pregnant"

--When I was 7, I was bullied terribly by a group known as the "Class Clowns'.
They were the meanest, ugliest, most unpleasant kids in the entire school.
They lived to disrupt the class with nasty pranks, and throughly enjoyed selecting new canidates each day for their wicked pleasure.
Because I was a very thin, mixed-race child with long hair & spectacles, I was an obvious 'victim'.
I was bothered for weeks by these animals, until one day, I suddenly decided to fight back.
I took a long umbrella to school with me, and when a particularly nasty boy approached me with his fists in the air, I aimed the umbrella, and threw it as if it were a javelin!
It struck the jerk directly in his right eye, and he howled like the creep that he really was.
Of course, I was taken to the office as a 'troublemaker', and my parents were sent for.
It was then my father told me the following:
"Nice little girls NEVER engage in violence.
That is for 'other' people's children, who don't share our values.
You must always seek an adult's assistance when you are being bothered by someone
And remember, that you must ALWAYS comport yourself like a 'lady' at all times, no matter the situation."
Hell! If I had waited for assistance, "Sam" (yes, to this day I remember his name, and the look on his face when the umbrella pierced his eye!) would have polished me off, and left me for the bin cleaners to pick up
When I became a mother for the first time, I swore I would treat my children differently.
Have I succeeded?
Not quite.
You see, as an adult, I have discovered that there ARE times when one Must refrain from giving children the entire picture.
You have to consider each child as an individual, and decide whether they are able to handle whatever you need to say, without any negative feedback.
Life; It gets more difficult each generation