When kids behave badly !

Dear reader,
This post should be filed under Something to think about. Though it is not my intent to offend anyone, I feel compelled to write and post this. Please read it as it was intended , without malicious intent.

Yes there are parents out there who are guilty of not raising their children to know right from wrong. I know parents who are so wrapped up in their careers and the mighty dollar, that their children are raised by whatever baby sitter is available. Sadly these baby sitters do not provide upbringing , values, or morals that these kids need . I also know people who take the entitled approach to raising their children. The nobody is better than you and you are entitled to feel or do whatever you want. This usually backfires the moment that the child enters school or any group for that matter. These are sure recipes for disaster but what about parents who try ? What about parents who read all of the books, spend hours praying and discerning, but still find that they are raising monsters ? Is it true that kids will be kids and that nobody is perfect and we should just accept what is ?I personally don't think so. I do believe that we must keep trying. I do agree that no child is perfect, but that is no reason that we Mothers and Fathers should not keep striving. As with everything, though perfection may never be attainable,hard work will get you closer and closer to perfection.
This was one of the subjects that Mike and I discussed on the way home from Cedar Point last night. Though Cindy had to work ,Mike, the boys and I decided to go for a few hours and catch some of their exclusively fall( Halloweekends) shows. It was a beautiful day and the park was nowhere as busy as it had been all summer so that the boys could even get on the most popular rides with only a half an hour or less in line. In general, a good time was had by all.
What was disturbing though was how many unruly children we seemed to come in contact with. Now maybe I am just over stressed,a victim of PMS,or whatever, but these badly behaved children seem to be coming from the woodwork. It started a couple days ago when Mike and I were trying to back our car out of a drive way when a group of children probably four to twelve years old kept riding a http://www.minipocketrockets.com/cagllari-pocket-rocket/
behind the car. I finally had to get out and make sure that they did not get hit as Mike got the car on the road. As usual when we are around these children's homes, there is never any adult supervision and these kids think nothing of walking into the street whenever they please not even stopping to look for traffic.I am told that these children are baby sat by a woman who lives in this neighborhood , however I have never seen any woman supervising these children who I have seen roam many times.
Then yesterday in the park, we didn't go into one show where some kid was not throwing a tantrum, or acting up in some way. There were the parents who did try, some even succeeded, but far more just ignored the situation or handled it in such a poor way that they actually made the problem worse.One little girl was called on stage to be an assistant in a magic act. The magician asked for a $20 bill from the audience. When no one offered, the girl was instructed to look sad. She did and replied that she was good at this because she used it all the time to get her own way ( Her mother seemed amused at her telling this to everyone, go figure ) Then finally a man was put on the spot and handed over a bill. The money disappeared (didn't see that coming did ya ? ) The magician asked the girl if she felt bad that the nice man's money was gone. She replied " No, why do I care" even the magician's jaw dropped. what a brat !If she were my child I would have slithered out of the show in shame, however again her Mother laughed, ouch !
Now I do believe in using the discipline form that works for your child, be it spanking, grounding, or even time outs , provided they really work.I personally have no luck with time outs,or even groundings and though my children would like to have me think otherwise, simply talking to them and explaining why they should behave with no real punishment is a joke, so I have spanked my older two, when needed for years. My youngest has been raised by the "Look what happened to my brother and sister" philosophy. I have not implemented this but he has. He knows the rules, he has seen them broken, he has seen the punishments given out, and he is scared to break the rules. Will this always work ? Maybe, maybe not. We will of course put him in the spanking category too if and when this current category fails.
Why this post ? Am I just in a bad mood and want to complain ? Not at all. I simply want to put out there that there is hope for parents. No it is not easy and it may disrupt your lifestyle but it can and will work. Every evening there are TV shows like Nanny 911, and other Nanny shows where parents write and beg for someone to restore order in their homes because their lack of discipline has manifested in terribly behaved children who have taken over. People, it is simple. Misbehavior is not cute, it is not funny.It needs to be corrected. There is no excuse for misbehavior ( not having sensitive children, not ADHD ( BTW two of my children have ADHD and discipline still works . I have even worked as an aid in a classroom for autistic children and though discipline must be very organized for these kids it is of most importance) My second point is that if you do let things go too far it will snowball. Ever hear of teens doing drugs ? teens shoplifting ? Teens that are totally out of control ? Do you think that they were the perfect children and one day it all just changed ? I don't think so. I know better. It started with an unruly child who got no discipline. Perhaps some may disagree with my philosophy, and I pray that your children don't end up where I predict.No parent should have to celebrate their child's birthday ( tenth or even fiftieth) through glass on visiting day at the local correctional facility.
If you do see yourself in this post, don't dis pare, there is hope, talk to someone, read a parenting book, Ask for help, implement something,you may have to tweak things but commit to it and just don't do nothing. There is hope and your children are worth it !