An interesting statement to be sure, but there’s a lot more to understand about it than you may realize. Just so that you understand my point of view, I’ve been around children for all my life, and pit bulls for most of it. I currently have four children, and though I have never owned a pit bull, I have interacted with quite a few, and got to know some pit bulls very well.

Depending on your frame of reference, your personal opinion of Pit Bull Terriers may vary. Often, pit bulls are considered to be one of most ferocious and aggressive dog varieties known to man, at least that’s how they are portrayed on television and by the media.

Are Pit Bulls really as bad as the reputation that they are given?

In many cases, yes. That is one reason why I am choosing to compare that particular breed to children. The other reason is that they do not have to be. I’ve met some wonderful, gentle Pit Bull Terriers that were basically giant “lap puppies.”

I have encountered some pit bulls that I would never desire to encounter again. I’ve seen big, nasty ones with names like “Obama” and “McCain” down in Texas that are used as guard dogs to protect property that I would not trust or desire to risk encountering. I’ve met one down on State Street in Madison, WI that bit the crotch of my friend’s pants, thankfully only getting the denim in between his teeth. The owner was joking around and told his dog to “Get the dreadie!”, and though my friend was the only one of us without dreadlocks at the time, it was his crotch that the pit bull chose to latch onto.

Other pits, like “Bobby” down in New Orleans, were always gentle, even when being played with. “Outlaw” back up in Wisconsin was a huge pit bull, but basically one of those “lap puppies” that I mentioned earlier, even as a full grown beast.

Some pits, like many other dogs, will destroy shoes and furniture, kill neighborhood pets and animals, and even wind up attacking people. Others, would never be caught participating in such activities.

Likewise, children seem to span just as broad of a spectrum of potential behaviors, if not even broader. I’ve met incredibly wicked children and those who are incredibly disrespectful and inappropriate. Yet, I’ve also met some of the most pleasant and well-mannered children in the world (or so I assume).

So then, what’s the difference?

I think that in both of these cases, with pit bulls and with children, there is a certain influence of the owner or parent that effects how they develop as it pertains to behavior. Often, I believe, it is both how they are trained and if they are trained as well.

Can a tiny pit bull puppy be turned into a ferocious killing machine able to hold its own in the worst dog fight? Yes, it can be trained to do so. However, the same puppy can be trained to be a quiet and gentle, tender and loving dog that will not bite people or chew on things.

Though I believe that there are huge differences between humans and dogs, it is the similarities in training or raising them that I am attempting to point out. Children can also be specifically trained to either be kind and gentle or mean and disrespectful. Often I have observed parents instructing their children to do or say inappropriate things just to get a good laugh. This is actually training the child to think that being disrespectful, vulgar, or cruel is funny, and often they’ll run with it.

It is also worth noting what a lack of training will accomplish. Many people would never intentionally train up their children to be mean or wicked, but a lack of proper guidance and instruction can still lead to the same result.

It is also worth pointing out that children never have to be trained on how to misbehave. They figure that out quite well on their own. A child has to be trained on how to behave.

Those are two simple sentences, but they possess worthwhile understanding to absorb. In order for a child to learn to behave properly, they must be instructed and trained in how tobehave.

They do not require teaching on how to misbehave. They’ll misbehave just fine on their own.

Since this is the tendency within all of us, especially as children, this is an important concept to comprehend. Though we can reason through the pros and cons of various behaviors and the potential outcomes of behaving in those ways, children, especially small children, really don’t have that capability. It is for that reason that children are under the authority and supervision of the parents.

It is the “job” and responsibility of the parents to work towards training their children properly.

Just like a pit bull that is never trained to know which behavior is appropriate will simply do as it pleases, children will do the same. If the dog is never trained not to chew up your slippers or urinate on the rug, it will consider these actions to be appropriate or permissible, and continue doing them all its life. A child that is never trained to share and not take things from others will continue in those activities and become a greedy, selfish child, then adolescent and eventually adult.

Now an adult can choose to be greedy or selfish if they want, but I think that it is best to train a child not to be.

I believe that too often these days, for a multitude of reasons, parents choose not to actively train their children to be appropriate and respectful. The results of the lack of training often look very similar to the results of intentionally training the children to act inappropriately. The intentions may have been different, but the results often appear similar.

Much like a pit bull with no training often ends up behaving similar to pit bulls trained up to be aggressive, children without proper instruction often behave similar to those trained to behave inappropriately.

Children are like pit bulls. They can become some of the most wonderful creatures that you’ve ever met or a terrifying disaster waiting to happen, and training is one of the main reasons for this similarity.

Please let me know what you think, and if you have anything I missed here that you’d like to point out.

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Stay tuned for “Children are Like Pit Bulls – Part 2”, coming soon to a steemit near you!

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Thank you for your time, @papa-pepper, and here's the proof:

proof-of-children

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