Posted on 03/25/2009 7:26:37 AM PDT by Notoriously Conservative
I don't know the status of parenting in America. But I know a little about the status of education in America. Parents' growing inability to impose manners and limits on their kids when the kids are in school is reflected in record dropout rates, as well as teen drug and alcohol abuse, teen sex, and unwed pregnancies. Maybe it's parenting that's on the decline, more than the schools.
Exhibit A: My wife and I have just been seated for dinner when the maitre d' walks over and seats a young family at the table next to us and the kids start carrying on like orangutans on a leash.
The parents are going, "Timmy, that's not nice, don't throw your food, stop stuffing your mashed potatoes up your nose." Are mom and dad having fun yet, picking food up off the floor, apologizing to people like us, and wiping food flung across the table off their faces?
Some parents still have this attitude that their kids are too special to be burdened by discipline. And the rest of us are supposed to put up with their little mutants. That attitude really pisses me off.
I hate to break it to them, but the kids aren't special, and I don't have to put up with their behavior. If you can't control your obnoxious little brats, leave them home.
They don't belong out in public annoying other people, period. I don't remember a generation of kids ever so indulged and enabled to behave so badly. What's going on?
I remember as a kid I was expected to behave myself out in public or suffer the wrath of one very angry father. And of all the things that used to piss him off, those expectations didn't seem unreasonable. Something's gone terribly wrong here. My guess is it has to do...
(Excerpt) Read more at notoriouslyconservative.com ...
Naturally, if I thought they were going to act out, I wouldn’t take them out in public.
However, once in public, with kids under 3, it’s a crapshoot. If I can’t get the situation under control I take them out of the establishment. At that age, it’s the absolute most you can do. Comprehension is the key, and kids under 3 just haven’t developed enough yet.
I don't know about anyone else, but I won't put up with that type of misbehavior from my own obnoxious little brat at home, let alone in public.
We're not perfect parents, and our child is no angel, but I am perfectly comfortable taking her out in public, knowing that we have at least instilled decent "public" manners in her.
Totally agree. I live in yuppieland where the moms don’t care and the dads think their only job in life is work so they, too, ignore their children. There are many restaurants we don’t go to because of the out of control kids.
I think my kids were switched at the hospitals.... my kids have been pretty easy to raise so there is no way they have any of my genes in them. ;^)
I concur with you on this. There does come a point in the establishment where you have to decide when enough is enough, otherwise you will never finish your meal as an adult, especially with toddlers.
I've been called “heartless” by a neighbor for doing exactly what you said. I've been told that my boys won't learn from their mistakes if they aren't “allowed” to make any by this same neighbor.
Perhaps if both his daughters hadn't been “allowed” to drop out of high school after giving birth to biracial babies, I might consider and seek his counsel. My DH has come very close to telling said neighbor to take a hike, but his manners have kicked in before he did.
They are never unsupervised. They are praised for doing things correctly, punished for doing things incorrectly.
Lots of love. Lots of discipline. Tolerance and education from their mom, stern discipline in between playtime with their dad.
Play. Education. Love. Discipline. Dependable daily routine (same bedtime, same wakeup time, same school time, same play time, same meal-time, etc.).
I love ‘em and they're worth it. I pity those parents who miss out on all of the above.
Kids act out because they are trying to get parents to act like parents, instead of like wusses or puddles of ooze.
Show public love *and* discipline to your kids...give your kids people and things (e.g. routine) that they can reliably depend upon, and everyone will turn out alright...even the parents.
I won’t say my kids are perfect—they have been and are little beasts at home and in public at times, but I do know one thing—they would not talk back to an adult.
My oldest is in Boy Scouts and at one of the meetings one of the troop members had his pants hanging down low. My husband told him to pull his pants up. He replied back, “What are you? The pants’ Nazi?” My husband said he said something back to him but I can’t remember what. I don’t know if he pulled up his pants, but at my other son’s Blue and Gold Cub Scout Banquet just recently, this same boy was there and his pants were down again. He was also sitting in a chair not doing anything when other people were helping to pick them up.
As far as I know the Troop leader doesn’t say anything to them about their appearance. Also, this boy’s mother is a real “B”. I’ve seen her in action with her husband and she shows him no respect—treats him like a child and is verbally nasty to him in public. I’ve also seen the son treat the dad in a very disrespectful way. I don’t like smartass kids and as far as I know this boy isn’t being called on it—except by my husband.
ROFL!!!!!!!!!
I was talking to a woman from church the other day and she commented that the life guard was at her end of the gene pool as her kids grew up more like her than their father (who I get the impression was a real piece of work)
My father never had to spank us. He’d just say, “I’m gonna take off my belt,” and we were scared into behaving perfectly. He never took the belt off, never raised a hand to us, never even used bad language or made threats. But we loved him and were scared to death of displeasing or disappointing him.
Our mother, on the other hand, had this hairbrush . . .
Two things I note on this subject. One the use of the word “parenting” coincides with the decline in public child behaviour. Two, delaying marriage and childbearing to the late 30’s and 40’s makes parents less capable and nervous about discipline. When parents were younger they just used common sense and didn’t read books on the right way to raise their kids.
Awww...that made me smile.
Life guard - that’s funny. I think God is mocking me because I always said you get the kids you deserve and I know I don’t deserve these, so he’s pointing out how good my husband was I think. ;^) (Thanks God, I owe you one, or two!)
The unruly kid(s) in this story are at least admonished by their parents. Most of the poor behavior I witness is typically ignored or even encouraged by parents.
Would it be possible for restaurants to have “kid” sections, as is the case with smoking or non-smoking? Or is that not politically correct?
Well, every kid I have has been harder to raise than the last, but I think that’s just because I’m getting old and jaded.
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