Jamaica Gleaner News - I seized 15 knives from my son and I ... - Monday

In the second of our feature, in which we highlight how parents deal with sensitive and troubling issues, we related how a Portmore mother dealt with her teenage son, after seizing an assortment of vicious knives from him. She handed him a series of tongue lashing, seasoned with threats to box him down, but her mother, who had also taken knives from him, prayed for him and reprimanded the teen's mother about the type of words she told him, since grandma said, words are powerful. We asked readers how would they have dealt with this situation. Here is one response.

I told him ... 'Bite your tongue!'

I too am a single mother with a young adult son who I had to confiscate knives from.

I had to take away only two, but I did not argue with him. I sat him down and talked about it. He said he wanted to be able to protect himself because he was teased sometimes too. However, I explained to him that although we don't always know when people may want to harm us, we must be prepared to take responsibility for our actions.

I told him that if in protecting himself he was killed, I would lose and if he killed the person, I would still lose. I made him understand that when we have weapons, we are less likely to walk away from simple arguments.

I taught him to bite his tongue and walk away because although words can be hurtful, a stab, cut, chop, thump or a gunshot wound hurts even more and can be fatal. He still gets angry sometimes and I am still trying to make him understand to take it easy, but talking is key.

Leonie Greaves, leoniegreaves@yahoo.com

Let us hear from you. Could these mothers have dealt with the situation any differently? How would have handled it?