A Plea to Parents
The world is going to hell in a handbasket and America is leading the charge. My girlfriends often tell me that I am way too strict on my son. Truth be told, I’d love to be stricter but sometimes at the end of a day, I’m so tired that I have to pick the battles that I fight. I’m also not as tough as I could be because I understand that he’s had some setbacks and I’m willing to work with him until he’s on par with other children his age.
However, with all that said and done, my aim as a parent is to raise someone who can be a valuable member of society. Each day I’m stunned by how parents seem to have forgotten what their goals as parents are. It is not to satisfy some need you have in yourself, if you are not fairly well matured, then leave the child bearing and rearing to people who are up for the challenge. Parents seem to believe that they need to be their children’s friends and that children should not ever face disappointment and that they deserve and must have everything their heart desires. As a result of this we have raised a generation of young adults who are incapable of thinking for themselves, have no idea how to handle disappointment, rejection or defeat and think that the world must bend to their needs.
I sincerely hope that no-one is surprised when in 20 years the emerging dominance that the East Indians and Chinese are beginning to exercise is felt in this country as we slowly lose our status as a super power. Their children are taught that nothing in life is easy and they must work hard in order to excel. They respect their parents and don’t expect to get everything handed to them on a platter. Recently listening to Tom Joyner’s morning show, they were talking about bringing back old fashion butt whoppings. It is amazing to me how corporal punishment has been looked at as abusive; yet with the end of corporal punishment in homes came the rise of juvenile delinquency and teen crime. There was one joke which I found especially hilarious. Children today believe that they have a right to privacy in their parents homes. Now I agree with this to an extent. You don’t have the right to build a bomb in my house, screw your boyfriend in my house or any other kind of malcontent behavior that I deem inappropriate. Why you ask? Because it’s my house and I set the rules and if you don’t like them, then hurry up and get the hell on out and go live in your own house and make your own rules. See how simple that is. Instead parents go out of their way to give their children privacy and then we have teen pregnancy, underage drinking and a whole host of other crap. I’m not saying young people won’t get into stuff, because I sure as hell did; but my Mother was so far up my butt creek and my business that it was hard to become derailed. I can guarantee you that if she suspected anything, she’d have been the first one searching my room, questioning my friends and getting to the bottom of whatever she figured was going on.
Teenagers today love to walk around and declare about “their things.” Like they have ever had to work a day to get any of those things. I think children should earn the things they have. I can be as indulgent as the next person towards my child, but at some point, you have to draw a halt. I cherish the fact that he has simple tastes and crayons and paper and some interesting toy is all he needs. I haven’t introduced him to video games, Nickolodeon, Disney or any other of the vices that parents seem to think are necessary for the entertainment of their children. The longer I can keep him innocent of the “must have” mentality, the easier it will be for me to let him know that he’s lived without it for this long, he can live without it that much longer. I’d much rather spend money on putting him in swimming, soccer, baseball, martial arts, even a drama club than forking over $500 for a game system and games to play. At least I know that with sports, he’s exercising his body and his mind instead of becoming a couch potato in front of a television.
Now why are you asking have I launched into this rant today. Quite simply a girl’s mother called me yesterday wanting to set up a meeting about something that happened to her child. Now the girl is clearly over 18 so what the &*@#$ are you calling me. Eventually, I called back the mtoehr and told her to have her daughter call me. The daughter called me back and told me what the situation was. The most hilarious thing was that the girl told me she’d just found out she was pregnant. I wanted to die laughing. Here you are about to become a parent and your MOMMY was still fighting your battles. Get a freaking grip.
I could continue this rant for days, but I’ll give it a rest for now, I’m sure I’ll have more to say on the topic the next time some idiotic parent pisses me off.
However, with all that said and done, my aim as a parent is to raise someone who can be a valuable member of society. Each day I’m stunned by how parents seem to have forgotten what their goals as parents are. It is not to satisfy some need you have in yourself, if you are not fairly well matured, then leave the child bearing and rearing to people who are up for the challenge. Parents seem to believe that they need to be their children’s friends and that children should not ever face disappointment and that they deserve and must have everything their heart desires. As a result of this we have raised a generation of young adults who are incapable of thinking for themselves, have no idea how to handle disappointment, rejection or defeat and think that the world must bend to their needs.
I sincerely hope that no-one is surprised when in 20 years the emerging dominance that the East Indians and Chinese are beginning to exercise is felt in this country as we slowly lose our status as a super power. Their children are taught that nothing in life is easy and they must work hard in order to excel. They respect their parents and don’t expect to get everything handed to them on a platter. Recently listening to Tom Joyner’s morning show, they were talking about bringing back old fashion butt whoppings. It is amazing to me how corporal punishment has been looked at as abusive; yet with the end of corporal punishment in homes came the rise of juvenile delinquency and teen crime. There was one joke which I found especially hilarious. Children today believe that they have a right to privacy in their parents homes. Now I agree with this to an extent. You don’t have the right to build a bomb in my house, screw your boyfriend in my house or any other kind of malcontent behavior that I deem inappropriate. Why you ask? Because it’s my house and I set the rules and if you don’t like them, then hurry up and get the hell on out and go live in your own house and make your own rules. See how simple that is. Instead parents go out of their way to give their children privacy and then we have teen pregnancy, underage drinking and a whole host of other crap. I’m not saying young people won’t get into stuff, because I sure as hell did; but my Mother was so far up my butt creek and my business that it was hard to become derailed. I can guarantee you that if she suspected anything, she’d have been the first one searching my room, questioning my friends and getting to the bottom of whatever she figured was going on.
Teenagers today love to walk around and declare about “their things.” Like they have ever had to work a day to get any of those things. I think children should earn the things they have. I can be as indulgent as the next person towards my child, but at some point, you have to draw a halt. I cherish the fact that he has simple tastes and crayons and paper and some interesting toy is all he needs. I haven’t introduced him to video games, Nickolodeon, Disney or any other of the vices that parents seem to think are necessary for the entertainment of their children. The longer I can keep him innocent of the “must have” mentality, the easier it will be for me to let him know that he’s lived without it for this long, he can live without it that much longer. I’d much rather spend money on putting him in swimming, soccer, baseball, martial arts, even a drama club than forking over $500 for a game system and games to play. At least I know that with sports, he’s exercising his body and his mind instead of becoming a couch potato in front of a television.
Now why are you asking have I launched into this rant today. Quite simply a girl’s mother called me yesterday wanting to set up a meeting about something that happened to her child. Now the girl is clearly over 18 so what the &*@#$ are you calling me. Eventually, I called back the mtoehr and told her to have her daughter call me. The daughter called me back and told me what the situation was. The most hilarious thing was that the girl told me she’d just found out she was pregnant. I wanted to die laughing. Here you are about to become a parent and your MOMMY was still fighting your battles. Get a freaking grip.
I could continue this rant for days, but I’ll give it a rest for now, I’m sure I’ll have more to say on the topic the next time some idiotic parent pisses me off.
posted by SueMorrWill @ 6:31 AM
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