Your 10 year old son (Paul) has some friends around and since it is a nice sunny day, they are playing in your large back yard.
They decide to play Cowboys & Indians, and one child (Matthew) is selected to be the cowboy and is tied to the washing line pole with your washing line.
At this point, do you:
1 - Stop the game and forbid the children to ever play it again?
2 - Allow the game to continue within clearly defined limits?
3 - Allow the game to continue without any intervention on your behalf?
About an hour or so later, you return to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and you look out of the window at the children. They are all sat or laid on the grass talking and the game has obviously finished. Matthew is still tied to the pole, showing no signs of distress or protest, and the children obviously don't have any immediate plans to release him.
At this point, do you:
1 - Make the children release Matthew straight away?
2 - Ask Matthew if he's ok and tell the children they must release him in a certain time? How soon?
3 - Allow Matthew to remain tied up without any intervention on your part?
If you go with 3 at this point, how much longer would you allow them children to keep Matthew tied up before you intervened?
When we played Cowboys n Indians as kids, it was always on the clear understanding that the Indians are the good guys and the innocent victims, and the cowboys were the bad girls and servants of the devil!
