Parents; These are YOUR Children!!

The other day I was at a garage sale where there were tons of toys and other children’s articles. A very young boy who was old enough to walk but not put words together was wrestling with some type of inflatable toy attempting to do who knows what with it. He was obviously getting very frustrated, for the utterances coming out of his mouth were becoming more and more guttural and animated.

Suddenly the boy screamed at the top of his lungs, threw the toy on the driveway and proceeded to start jumping up and down on it in an attempt to break it. At the same time he was yelling incoherent words and noises at the object he was so frustrated with. Amazingly there was no parent around to intercede; they were too busy and too uninterested to notice what was happening.

In due time, the boy go tired of that object and moved on to another. I watched in utter disbelief as the exact same thing happened, only this time the boy won. When he threw the toy on the driveway it broke. Immediately the mother ran over and scolded the boy, not for the tantrum, but for breaking the toy. Of course the boy was not happy and he proceeded to start slapping the mother while yelling and screaming. In his mind, the mother was no different than the toy. If he had been big enough, he would have picked her up and threw her down just like the two toys.

Since the time I was forced to witness this incident, I have tried to understand what exactly happened. Many questions have arisen in my mind concerning all parties involved. How can a two year old develop so much anger so quickly in their life? How can a mother allow their child to slap her and yell at her? How can society allow parents to be so apathetic that they do not provide training to their children?

Earlier in the week I had to go the Emergency Room at the Hospital to have something checked out. While waiting for test results in my little cubicle, a mother and child were brought into the room next to mine. The child had a bad ear infection that had gotten worse over the weekend.

From the time they arrived until the time I was allowed to leave 90 minutes later, the child screamed at the top of his lungs non-stop. I have never heard such blood curdling cries in my life. It literally sounded as if someone was cutting off the child’s fingers and toes one by one. During this 90 minutes nothing was done by the parent or hospital staff to try and quiet the child. No soothing words, no sucker, no medication; nothing. Instead, one unhappy and sick child was allowed to make 18 sick and miserable adults also in the ER sicker and more miserable.

Why are children allowed to run the show? Why are adults petrified at the idea of instructing, correcting and if need be, punishing their children? Do parents not understand that their children’s behavior affects other people? Do they not see how when they allow their kids to run up and down the aisles of Wal Mart screaming and running into people right and left; that this could be a little disconcerting to others, especially the elderly and disabled?

I used to take my elderly mother to the store once a week. This allowed her to get out of the house and do something. We had to stop this activity because the screaming and running kids got her so worked up she would go into a panic attack. We live in a selfish society where many people could care less about the feelings and welfare of anyone but themselves.

Ever notice how many times in a store a child will run and run and finally come back to the mother with a toy or candy and demand they be allowed to get it. Sometimes the parent will say no, but many times they yield because they know what will happen if they refuse. The kid goes into a full scale tantrum in the store complete with yelling and screaming and hitting. Why are kids allowed to run the show? Why can’t parents take control of their kids and be parents?

Our culture has turned kids into pampered and spoiled brats. They get everything they want when they want it, and when they don’t, they let the whole world know how unhappy they are. Isn’t it interesting how this also defines the attitude and behavior of many adults? Children raised without discipline turn into adults with no bounds on their behavior and in turn provide many new patients to Doctors and clients for defense and divorce attorneys.

Parents do not need to beat their children into submission. Parents do not need to “reason” with them either. Parents need to instruct, teach, train and provide what parents were put on earth to do; parental guidance. But, due to job schedules and other activities, parents dump the training of their children on the school, church and television. The end result is a society full of undisciplined and spoiled children who turn into selfish and apathetic adults.

I wish this sign would be posted in every store and along every highway in the country; “Parents, please take responsibility for your children”. Parents, these are YOUR children, thus they are YOUR responsibility to love, protect, provide for, train and teach. You are the parent and this is YOUR job. I had better stop or next we will be talking about what foster care has done to our society. Thank you for allowing me to get this “burning subject” off my chest. Next post I will return to the regularly scheduled subjects.

God bless you and keep you safe.