q8penpals
Junior Member
Salam
As a teacher, my biggest concern would be the psychology of having a child lead adults. It changes the dynamic of the parent/child relationship if a young child is leading an adult. It is not the time of the Prophet anymore where there are only so few people who know the prayers and such that you find anyone you can to lead you. Can a woman lead her, say 10 year old son in prayer if her son does not know the whole thing? I mean, if he only knows part of the prayer or just not perfectly yet, why should he lead his mother (or older sister)? This is especially important for families of converts. For example, lets say a woman has kids and converts. She will probably learn the prayers first, and is teaching her children. Her children will have to follow her example. Is it better for them to pray alone or follow her if they are male children?
In Kuwait it is a huge problem - not kids leading adults in prayer, but kids bossing adults around (even as young as 5 or 6 years old). By this I mean, the nanny culture (where the nannies are basically personal indentured servants of the children) where the kids are bossing a grown up around. It really messes with the social balance between adults and children (I hear it is a problem in many of the oil-rich GUlf countries).
In Saudi several years ago, a lady broke the law by driving her husband to the hospital (women are not allowed to drive in Saudi). She got her husband to the hospital and the doctors took her husband in for treatment and called the police on her. The police told her she should have let her son drive her and the husband to the hospital. Ok, you say, what is wrong with that? Her son was in the car with her - he was 5 years old. The police thought it would have been better to have a 5 year old drive than his adult mother in an emergency situation. *cRaZy*
Lana
As a teacher, my biggest concern would be the psychology of having a child lead adults. It changes the dynamic of the parent/child relationship if a young child is leading an adult. It is not the time of the Prophet anymore where there are only so few people who know the prayers and such that you find anyone you can to lead you. Can a woman lead her, say 10 year old son in prayer if her son does not know the whole thing? I mean, if he only knows part of the prayer or just not perfectly yet, why should he lead his mother (or older sister)? This is especially important for families of converts. For example, lets say a woman has kids and converts. She will probably learn the prayers first, and is teaching her children. Her children will have to follow her example. Is it better for them to pray alone or follow her if they are male children?
In Kuwait it is a huge problem - not kids leading adults in prayer, but kids bossing adults around (even as young as 5 or 6 years old). By this I mean, the nanny culture (where the nannies are basically personal indentured servants of the children) where the kids are bossing a grown up around. It really messes with the social balance between adults and children (I hear it is a problem in many of the oil-rich GUlf countries).
In Saudi several years ago, a lady broke the law by driving her husband to the hospital (women are not allowed to drive in Saudi). She got her husband to the hospital and the doctors took her husband in for treatment and called the police on her. The police told her she should have let her son drive her and the husband to the hospital. Ok, you say, what is wrong with that? Her son was in the car with her - he was 5 years old. The police thought it would have been better to have a 5 year old drive than his adult mother in an emergency situation. *cRaZy*
Lana