A day out adventuring
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Two recent encounters with parents in public places has me wondering what type of environment our kids will grow up in. Both involved parents (one a mom, other a dad) who did nothing to stop or correct their kid's rude behavior. First one was a mom who let her kid jump in front of Cal while he was waiting to putt a ball on a put-put course. "No, honey, it isn't your turn," the mom says, and then proceeds to let her daughter hit the ball in front of him, and help her finish the hole. Sue and I looked at each other in disbelief. We ran into them several other times in other places at the Children's museum, and there was no parenting whatsoever. Can't wait until this kid starts Kindergarten with one of our kids.
Second one happened to me today at a "play zone" type place with big slides and some play rooms. Kid jumps in on what Cal is playing with again, and dad says to me "sorry, she's got no manners yet." If I weren't married for almost 10 years to someone who has helped me tame my stream-of-consciousness commenting, I would not have been able to refrain from saying "so, at what age do you think she'll magically get manners?" I know our kids aren't perfect, and we make lots of parenting mistakes, but we don't let our kids take advantage of other kids when we're around. How much more evidence do we need that our culture is developing a complete "me-first" society, when our 4-year old son with "developmental challenges," is more polite than the majority of the human population? This is why I refuse to stop Cal from asking anyone and everyone "Hi, what's your name?" and oblige him when he asks me to say "hi" to that person. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all did this?
Again, we're not perfect, so if you ever feel that our kids are out of line, and doing something that takes advantage of others around them, you have my permission to say something to them and to us.
Peace.
And now back to our normal programming....
Two recent encounters with parents in public places has me wondering what type of environment our kids will grow up in. Both involved parents (one a mom, other a dad) who did nothing to stop or correct their kid's rude behavior. First one was a mom who let her kid jump in front of Cal while he was waiting to putt a ball on a put-put course. "No, honey, it isn't your turn," the mom says, and then proceeds to let her daughter hit the ball in front of him, and help her finish the hole. Sue and I looked at each other in disbelief. We ran into them several other times in other places at the Children's museum, and there was no parenting whatsoever. Can't wait until this kid starts Kindergarten with one of our kids.
Second one happened to me today at a "play zone" type place with big slides and some play rooms. Kid jumps in on what Cal is playing with again, and dad says to me "sorry, she's got no manners yet." If I weren't married for almost 10 years to someone who has helped me tame my stream-of-consciousness commenting, I would not have been able to refrain from saying "so, at what age do you think she'll magically get manners?" I know our kids aren't perfect, and we make lots of parenting mistakes, but we don't let our kids take advantage of other kids when we're around. How much more evidence do we need that our culture is developing a complete "me-first" society, when our 4-year old son with "developmental challenges," is more polite than the majority of the human population? This is why I refuse to stop Cal from asking anyone and everyone "Hi, what's your name?" and oblige him when he asks me to say "hi" to that person. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all did this?
Again, we're not perfect, so if you ever feel that our kids are out of line, and doing something that takes advantage of others around them, you have my permission to say something to them and to us.
Peace.
And now back to our normal programming....
posted by DSMCA @ 10:04 PM
2 Comments:
Go Doug! Love what you said about Parenting!
I feel the same way. I have no problem correcting other children when the parents are out of site (I follow the "it takes a village" notion), but it's hard when they are standing right there. I guess we could use those situations as learning opportunites for our own kids. "It does't feel good when someone butts in front of you - that's why we don't do it." Of course I couldn't help but say this a little loud just to get in a little zinger.:)
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