Priority

[catholicinsd]

The Children should always come first. Neglect and negliance have their origins in other types of thinking.

[sixpence]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1310747005' post='2267765']
In matters of little importance (the air conditioning thing would fall into this, or sitting on a bus, or other trivialities of this sort), parents should get priority as a matter of deference.
In matters of grave importance (getting the last lifeboat place, receiving medical attention in a triage situation, etc), I would expect the parent to allow his child the priority.
[/quote]

this

[revelations]

the little things in life that are unimportant to some people..are the same things that mean the world to somebody else.

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='CherieMadame' timestamp='1310998821' post='2269379']
This is the mind of the Church - I remember actually learning this in religious life. I think something in the Catechism even says something like that? If it wasn't the Catechism, it was a pretty important book like that. Wish I could remember.

HOWEVER ... I think there are two completely different questions being raised. They sound similar, but they are VERY different.

Yes, the relationship between spouses needs to come first. Matthew 7:24-27 -- for everything to "work," their marriage needs to be built on rock.

But when it comes to temporal needs and the like? CHILDREN come first!!! If we're in a boat that's sinking and we have to choose: save my spouse or my children, you can BET sure as Heaven we're going to choose the children. And we both know that and would expect each other to do that.

The whole air conditioning thing?! Yeah, we would have definitely put our children in there and suffered the heat ourselves. One of my favorite quotes, from Tenneva Jordan: "A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." And that's the way it should be. The question of the parents' relationship coming first doesn't play into temporal affairs like that (and even emotional things: making sure they feel safe and happy, etc.)-- when it comes to things like that, children come first.

By making sacrifices like that, we are teaching our children how to be selfless. Little eyes are watching us - so when there is an issue like that, we need to be SELFLESS and do the virtuous thing, because our children are like sponges: they're going to soak it all up.

So when people say, "The parents' relationship comes first," that's not a license for selfishness, and if it's used as one, they are totally, utterly, and completely missing the point. That simply means that the parents' relationship needs to be "up-kept"; they need to have a solid foundation, because they are the image of God to their children--that's why divorce is so crushing and terrible. So you can't have a great relationship with your children if the spouses hate living with each other and their marriage is in tatters. That's just common sense!

But it's also common sense that when it comes to protecting and ensuring the well-being of our children, [i]that[/i] comes first. At the very least that's just being [i]virtuous![/i] And we WANT to do those things for our kids, we WANT to make sacrifices for them!!!, because we love them to death!!!

See what I mean?

Anyway, I totally echo AC's statement: It's not "US vs. THEM" .... we're a FAMILY and that's the way it should be!!!
[/quote]

[Era Might]

God comes first.