Let me start off by saying I am not trying to stir the pot, only trying to put my feelings out there into cyber-land.
If you read yesterdays post you may know that M and I got off to a bad start, which resulted in some discipline on our street.
I was not proud of the swat on the bum, especially when you are trying to teach a young person to be kind to others.
Yesterday though I felt like I had explored all my options in the 10 minutes that we were engaged in a battle of the wills.
Here is the thing;
I'm not afraid to discipline my child, in public or otherwise.
I was disciplined as a child, and I won't go into the details of my Fathers military like discipline measures, but suffice to say that they were somewhat cruel and unusual.
I will never, ever while I am on the face of this earth do anything that extreme to my child.
But a swat on a bum?
.
.
.
The reason that I bring this up is this;
Today while playing at the local water park, in all of five minutes I was annoyed by the behavior of some of the kids that should know better, and more so of the adults who blatantly stood by and watched their children push and shove their way through the water.
The kid that tried to push my 14 month old and looked up at me to see if I was watching?
I wanted to do more than spank his bum.
His mother that stood there and watched him do it?
Well I wanted to do a little more than that.
After 4 issues with pushing, shoving, hitting in 20 minutes I hightailed it out of there.
Am I being to harsh? Overprotective of my kids?
Maybe.
But here is a thought.
Why is it that there are so many insolent little kids/teenagers and young adults out there today?
Why are they so mean? Rude? Ignorant?
Is it because their parent didn't show them the way and discipline them when necessary?
Did they give them the toy they wanted in order to squash the temper tantrum?
Did they feel that their parents were so strict and harsh in their punishments that they vowed never to be like them and as a result are raising bullies?
BLAH!!!!
Heavy topic for tonight.
One that I am not necessarily looking for answers on.
Because I know we are not all perfect and that is what makes this great big world of ours spin.
I just wanted to vent.
Nighty Night.
Yeah, I'm not for parents beating their children in public (mostly) but oh my god, the way some parents just stand there like puddings while their kids are being a-holes? There was one mother in our dance class who would actually wave and smile and blow kisses at her daughter while said daughter was disrupting the class and knocking over the ghetto blaster. I would have APPLAUDED a swat on the bum at that point.
ReplyDeleteThanks Allison. I am feeling guilty about it but rest assured I don't beat my child. Cross my heart. I just want my children to grow up being kind.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you ask this because we have different views on discipline but we agree on this: the parents who ignore their kids, who "don't notice" behavior, and who refuse to choose to parent and instead choose to be completely permissive are abdicating their responsibility.
ReplyDeleteWe're supposed to teach kids what's okay and what's not, and some parents just aren't doing that. I'm completely opposed to corporal punishment. I believing in talking and negotiating and persuading kids. But I would never let my child push yours. I would never let my child bully or grab from or tease another person. Because I want the same thing you do: a decent society that is full of pleasant people. How we get there is less the point than that we try to help our kids learn kindness. So why are there parents out there who don't seem to care about teaching their kids at all?