Sandra Dodd

Insult and justification from friend of a friend on facebook.  I doubt she's in this discussion; if she is, no problem.

I had objected to "have to" (as I do).

-=-"Sandra Dodd if you want to be pedantic then yes,i have chosen to remove [access to video games from one child], i have tried everything as i dont really want to,he likes them and i do believe in the value of video games,i also dont have a problem with the amount of time he spends on them,he could spend all day on them if it made him happy,but it wasnt making him happy,i think some children are just more affected by these things than others,his brother isnt like this,so i dont think its my approach that needs to change,i just think maybe he is not ready for them at the moment,i still try to find things connected to them that he likes (super mario super show,sonic activity books and toys etc) so i feel i have made the best decision for him and all of us."-=-

I didn't argue there.  I'll leave it.
Do I "want to be pedantic"?
I want to be clear and to help others find more clarity.

I suppose "pedantic" is one of those words used to insult others when the speaker/writer has been busted for fuzzy, imprecise thinking.

-=-i feel i have made the best decision for him and all of us.-=-

Yes.

The whole thing is the kind of argument we hear regularly in parenting discussions.
I hope some of you reading this might have guessed as it was going what might be pointed out as blocks to unschooling.  I have no idea if that other mom is even involved in home education where she lives, let alone unschooling.  But this... "i feel i have made the best decision for him and all of us." means the child is not in a position to make a decisions\.  And the mom's feelings about the decisions are the very definition of "best."  What she does is "best."  What he does is either accept or resent her decisions made for him.

Am I being pedantic about what it means to make a decision for someone, or what it means that she has "made the best decision for him"?
Without looking at these things, we can't do better.

Sandra