Or better yet, just don’t keep it anywhere visibly in the house. If you need it for something, keep it on the shelf in your locked study, amongst a whole bunch of other books.
In general, just remove it from their attention as much as possible, bot physically and psychologically.
To provide some anecdotal evidence, my parents encouraged me to be intellectually curious, and they left plenty of their books in open sight, but I had plenty of books of my own that looked much more interesting than theirs.
My parents also encouraged me to be intellectually curious, and left all of our large number of books in open sight, and I suspect that some of the things I read when I was young probably would have distressed them. If not the books about child development and adolescent behavior and so on, then probably things like this book which I read when I was fourteen, which, had it had to clear any sort of ratings system, would probably have been rated X even if all the content of a sexual nature had been excised.
What are the “better ways” that you allude to?
Unless you plan to be around to correct them forever, I think there’s a point when you do have to trust the next generation.
For the majority of kids, the best way to stop them from reading a book is simply to leave it on a bookshelf and not mention it.
Or better yet, just don’t keep it anywhere visibly in the house. If you need it for something, keep it on the shelf in your locked study, amongst a whole bunch of other books.
In general, just remove it from their attention as much as possible, bot physically and psychologically.
I suspect this is rather less likely to be effective when you’re raising a kid who you actively encourage to be intellectually curious.
To provide some anecdotal evidence, my parents encouraged me to be intellectually curious, and they left plenty of their books in open sight, but I had plenty of books of my own that looked much more interesting than theirs.
My parents also encouraged me to be intellectually curious, and left all of our large number of books in open sight, and I suspect that some of the things I read when I was young probably would have distressed them. If not the books about child development and adolescent behavior and so on, then probably things like this book which I read when I was fourteen, which, had it had to clear any sort of ratings system, would probably have been rated X even if all the content of a sexual nature had been excised.
It shouldn’t be on the bookshelf in the first place.