Monday, March 23, 2009

A Parenting Blurb...

Sorry... been out of the loop lately... working, puking, taking care of the kiddos, my birthday, you know... just busy :-)

But I came home at lunch and read this little article and I do believe it deserves some merit. So I will repost it here!

"Below is an excerpt from CNN commentator Jack Cafferty's new book, "Now or Never." Jack appears daily in "The Situation Room" on CNN from 4 to 7 p.m. ET.

In his new book, "Now or Never," Jack Cafferty says parenting might be on the decline more than schools are.

I never presumed to have any more answers about being a parent than anybody else.
There are no perfect parents, perfect kids, perfect families -- only degrees of dysfunction.
You get up in the morning and do the best you can. At the end of the day you say, "Okay, that wasn't so bad, let's try it again tomorrow." Some of my instincts were pretty good and some of them were awful.


I did stay engaged and didn't say to hell with being a father when my first marriage ended. With the younger girls, I eventually made the choice to clean up my alcoholism before I pushed things to the point of no return. But most of the credit does to my second wife Carol; to the girls; and to God Almighty. Ultimately, I've just been very fortunate.

I don't know the status of parenting in America. But I know a little about the status of education in America. Parents' growing inability to impose manners and limits on their kids when the kids are in school is reflected in record dropout rates, as well as teen drug and alcohol abuse, teen sex, and unwed pregnancies. Maybe it's parenting that's on the decline, more than the schools.

Exhibit A: My wife and I have just been seated for dinner when the maitre d' walks over and seats a young family at the table next to us and the kids start carrying on like orangutans on a leash.

The parents are going, "Timmy, that's not nice, don't throw your food, stop stuffing your mashed potatoes up your nose." Are mom and dad having fun yet, picking food up off the floor, apologizing to people like us, and wiping food flung across the table off their faces?
Some parents still have this attitude that their kids are too special to be burdened by discipline. And the rest of us are supposed to put up with their little mutants. That attitude really pisses me off.


I hate to break it to them, but the kids aren't special, and I don't have to put up with their behavior. If you can't control your obnoxious little brats, leave them home.

They don't belong out in public annoying other people, period. I don't remember a generation of kids ever so indulged and enabled to behave so badly. What's going on?

I remember as a kid I was expected to behave myself out in public or suffer the wrath of one very angry father. And of all the things that used to piss him off, those expectations didn't seem unreasonable. Something's gone terribly wrong here. My guess is it has to do with the breakdown of authority, the collapse of strong family structure, and the abdication of parental responsibility, dictated in part by the necessity that both parents work.
Plus, we have a whole generation of Baby Boomers who are too busy feeling entitled to prolong their own self-indulgent, self-absorbed adolescences to rein in their own kids."



AMEN.

I have long ago came to the conclusion that it's not so much the schools that are failing but parenting that is failing in America. This is just my opinion, being a mom of 3. I'm NOT saying that I beat my kids on a regular basis but by some standards, I am probably considered a "mean mom". My children are very loved, adored, and doted on.... however, I am the parent and I will not be disrespected. I have taken care of and observed a lot of children behavior in my short little life and I can tell you I have been hit, kicked, swung at intentionally, EVEN SPIT ON. I have to say that if my children ever thought of doing something as horrible as some of these things.... they will suffer the wrath of a mother....

Sorry... got me all fired up! Now I have to go back to work.... where I hopefully won't be injured :-) (Seriousley.... friday it took 2 nurses, mom, and dad just to hold a kid down for a FINGER POKE!)

6 comments:

-jd said...

You're not mean...you love your kids...you want to show them the way to being an adult. That's real love, not every video game they could possibly want and a puppy that's bad, with hugs and discipline your boys know true love.

I can't wait to get home to yell at them!.....and ride bikes.
-jd

rachaelgking said...

I know I'm not a mama and probably can't talk... but I took a LOT of developmental psychology classes in college... they ALL said the best kind of parenting was Authoritative, NOT Authoritarian, NOT Laissez-faire, but the perfect in-between. Love AND discipline when necessary. Sounds like you have the perfect balance ;-)

ChiTown Girl said...

Amen to that, Sista!!! Glad you're back, I've missed you!

ChiTown Girl said...

Hey, hope you don't mind, I'm stealing this excerpt to post over on my blog. I loved it!

rachaelgking said...

Which meet up are you guys thinking about coming into town for??

-jd said...

The Chicago one... July I think? :-)