Can We Talk 2

Parenting

         We have come to this sad state where a parent's pride and her spoiled children's tender feelings are more important than teaching them respect and safety. I witnessed a woman get upset and complain to a manager because an employee asked her children to stop riding skateboards in the building with pregnant women and young children around. They kept going, only altering their direction. When she repeated herself in a stern voice, the mother became outraged at the "meaness" of the employee.

         A store is privately owned, even if it is a board of directors or a group of trustees. The employees are their representatives. You wouldn't let your child, hopefully, go into someone's hope and do as they please and ignore the homeowner or the maid. Why would you let your child create havoc in a store? Why wouldn't you think about your child's safety and the safety of others yourself before an employee does?

         Now what lessons are these children learning? Do anything you want 'cause Mama's got your back? Ignore all adult authority? Be careless and don't worry about hurting or inconveniencing someone else? It's okay to get someone in trouble or cost them a job just because your pride in your precious ones was injured? Everyone else has to follow rules except you?

         And what about overprotecting your child? People are going to say and do things all their adult lives that they don't like. Why shouldn't they learn to live with it? Why don't parents reinforce the rules and let their kids know that they can't always do as they please all the time? They may not like being told to stop, or the way that they're told. But they'll have to learn to live with it.