Bratty Kids and Their Bratty Parents

Here I am sitting at Caribou waiting patiently for my boyfriend to get off of work. When all of a sudden CRASH. Some kid probably about Owen's age knocks over a mug on display and it shatters. His Mom who obviously hadn't been paying attention saunters over to check it out. She glances down and then puts her son (Who grinned when it broke.) in his stroller and says NOTHING. More and more I see kids like the one today whose parents lack of discipline make for kids who act inappropriate and have no consequences for it.

If Owen decides to throw a tantrum at a friends' house, he did just this last week actually, we go home. He disobeys he gets time outs or swats on the butt. He is learning that there will be consequences to his actions if he breaks rules. He is learning responsibility for himself and his actions. I have little patience for a child who has a lack of regard for other's personal belongings or public property. Too often you see parents who are browsing in a store letting their young child run wild. Screaming, running into stuff, knocking stuff over, stealing, and messing the store up. The parent has an obvious lack of respect for the store owner, property, or staff who ultimately has to clean up after their crazed child. In effect their children will also grow up with that same sense of not needing to respect others or their things.

I understand this day in age people are afraid of disciplining their children, too afraid. My son knows what a spanking is, and I am not ashamed of that. I always take the time to explain (sometimes very angrily) why he got spanked or a time out. I find nothing wrong with that at all. My son can act out sometimes, but in the grand scheme of children in public or in general he is one of the better ones. So many parents don't want to "psychologically harm" their kids by yelling, or spanking. Some parents think doing nothing is the best way to do something. Well, guess what? Other parents will not like your child or the effect he or she has on their own child and not want them to be friends. Teachers, employers, law enforcers, and even peers will have bad opinions and shy away from kids like that. In your lack of action you are doing way way more harm than good.

Parents. Discipline your kid. If he breaks something SAY something, anything to communicate he did something wrong. If he tries to steal a piece of candy from a store tell him it is unacceptable behavior, take away his favorite toy, ground him, take away his TV privilege. (After all that is what it is.) At Owen's ECFE class this week my "teacher" said it perfectly. We are as parents our child's first and best teacher. We don't just teach them how to walk, talk, sing the ABC's, and dress themselves. We teach them manners, acceptable behavior, and to not break rules. Why?

En-ti-tle-ment: Noun. The fact of having a right to something.
You let your kid run his mouth, act how he pleases, and break rules he will have a sense of entitlement that will make him believe he can act that way his whole life. Right up until the cop arrests him and he resists because he doesn't feel like he did anything wrong by breaking the law. Psshhhh. Law Shmaw. I mean who can fault his poor future self? He was taught rules were ok to break.

I am so sick, absolutely sick to my stomach at all the bad parenting out there these days. What is so wrong with the old school structure and discipline? Why is it all organic, hippie "discipline with hugs"?? It rarely works as well as the regular way of raising a kid. The way I was raised. The way our parents were raised. Our parents weren't given everything they wanted whenever they wanted. If they did something bad they got a belt or switch spanking not a timeout in a naughty chair. They got no dinner. They are typically also very educated and successful in their careers. They have a strong work ethic and kids today are all beginning to lack that. Severely.

Your bratty children reflect badly on you, when I see a bratty child. I think the parent must be somewhat of a brat as well. Like the lady at Caribou. No apology for her child, nothing. She just got her coffee and walked off.

I will end this rant with this. Some parents can pull off the discipline with hugs approach. Not all parents who choose this way of parenting are scum of parents. They can do it because they have laid back kids and are doing it because they truly believe in it. Not because they themselves are lazy brats. Those are the idiots who I am complaining about. :)