If you are a Parent, be sure to do some PARENTING

 We went to dinner last night with friends.  We had our 2 young children and they had their 5 year old daughter.  About 10 minutes before we left the restaurant, a group came in and sat in the booth adjacent to ours.  They had a boy, who was around 4 years old, who stood on the seat and faced us.  He was distracting to us and even touched my son on the head once.  I motioned to him to turn around, which his mother saw, but he did not.  The mother did nothing.  She tried once to have him turn around, only to be rebuffed by his whining, so she let it go.  I seethed at the lesson that the boy was learning, and the lack of manners the parents tolerated.  The boy controls his parents, with his attitude.

I see more parents letting their kids get away with poor behavior because it’s just a hassle to deal with them.  I am so sick and tired of this attitude!  If you are a parent, you darned well better BE THE PARENT!  Act like it.  Teach your children manners and do not tolerate poor behavior that bothers other people.

It’s like the whole attitude of “entitlement.”  It is becoming increasingly rare for people to take responsibility, and not blame someone else.  Just last week in our local news, a family visited a State Park at the Oregon Coast.  They had a 3 year old daughter who (while posing for a picture) fell through a wooden fence, nearly falling 150 to the rocks below.  I read in an interview where the mother said, “The more I thought about it the angrier I became.  A State Park is supposed to be safe…”  I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of families have visited that park over the years, without 1 small child falling through the fence.  (There are even signs warning you to stay away from the edge.)  But her reaction was to BLAME someone else.  I guess ALL fences in the general public need to be child-proof.  Right?  We might as well pad the entire world, or some child might fall down, bump their head and get hurt.  It’s absolutely ridiculous that people can’t take responsibility for themselves.  I am so angry about the entitlement mentality.  More and more people seem to be “victims” and incapable of caring for themselves and their children in the real world.

If you ever watch the show, Supernanny, which I comment on occasionally, one thing you will notice is that she never works on the kids.  She works on the PARENTS.  Incompetent people, bad follow-through and poor communication skills lead to most parenting problems.  It all starts with your philosophy.  Be the parent.  Your kids will be so thankful in the long run, and so will the rest of us who have to deal with them.

Let’s get rid of this outrageous “what about me, where’s mine” entitlement mentality and start being self-reliant, competent citizens.  As Theodore Roosevelt said, “Self-reliance is the key to a vigorous life.” 

Tags: dad, entitlements, mom, parents, supernanny, Theodore roosevelt