Education....Hey, Parents Pay Attention!

I'll say it, up front, I do love kids. Mostly in small doses.  However.....let me ask this?

What do I look like? Bozo the flippin' clown?  (Does anyone even GET the Bozo reference any more?  Have I hopelessly outdated myself?)  i am NOT sitting (or standing) here educating YOUR bratty, squirmy, over-sugared, never-disciplined five year (who is acting more like three) so you can have a coffee klatch with your Mommy-And-Me mate.  Heads up, your kid needs to know this stuff and so do YOU!!  I am not your baby-sitter for a half an hour.

This message is for the two moms who sat there, while I'm trying to talk, watching, yes, WATCHING their two kids talk to each other, completely ignoring me AND the other kids.  I tried the old "Uh, I'm talking now" gambit.  No dice. I tried the "Do you guys needs to sit over there and talk?" (I keep forgetting ---- five doesn't get sarcasm. Darn.)  I looked at the mothers.  Not a clue.  Since when is it OK for your precious darlings to talk while another person (needless to say an ADULT) is speaking?  Shucks, did I miss the memo??

I finally said, "I'm going to stop until everyone is quiet." The other kids starting giving the offenders the stink eye and then finally the mothers heard the clue phone and picked it up.

OK, yes, I know I sound EXACTLY like my grandmother.  I confess. I will not apologize for thinking that your kid is NOT more special (bad English) than me or anybody else around him or her. I will not apologize for thinking that kids today are even more disrespectful and unfocused then I could have ever dreamed of being when I was five.

I was not perfect, not by a long shot.  But when a grownup or counselor talked to me and told me to do something or was teaching me something, especially at camp, I listened.  Because if I didn't....da-da-dum-dum....the long arm of my mother would come like Mama Bear letting her cub know that was so NOT cool!

And now a mother in Texas has been put on five years' probation for (gasp) spanking her kid.  What the hell is that??  I'm sorry for her: it's ridiculous. I'm hear to tell you: the last group of kids I had could have used a little bottom dusting.  Animals use positive and negative reinforcement.  I'll never forget my mother telling me, "When I tell you to do something now or stop dong something now, I mean NOW!" Then she told me that when she was growing up, a neighborhood girl, (whose parents were much like many modern parents who use reason and explanation) was hit by a car.  Her mom told her to get out of the street now, and the kid asked "Why?"  Last words she ever uttered..  My mother saw it happen.

I have learned so much from some of the great kids I've been privileged to talk to.  They can be really insightful, some of them really 'get it!"  I love the hugs I occasionally get!  The laughs. The Girl Scouts (Brownies, Daisies) are really awesome.

However, I have noticed the kids that are the most fun are the ones who are ironically are also the best behaved!  Hmmm...gives one pause for thought.