First of all, John and I are in mourning and have put our Rider gear away for another season. Secondly I have had to reign back on my column this week as I tend to get crazy when talking about this subject, so here I go.
"If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money."
What a statement, hey? When I was growing up there was no question which one applied to me, thus my siblings and I have turned out FANTASTIC (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Nowadays most parents just buy, buy, buy and let the kids do whatever they want. Now before you parents that actually spend time with your kids start heading to the computer to email me, STOP. As with everything, there are still those parents out there who actually enjoy their children and want to make life-long memories.
I can't believe the amount of 10-year-olds that have a cell phone. Wake up parents. The electronic device you've sent to watch over your child is sitting in his pocket. Maybe you should know where your physical child is instead of handing them a glorified babysitter to keep track of your 'precious' one.
If you've taken any sort of parenting classes you will recognize the 'Disneyland' parent effect. Now I've talked about this before and have had many readers (both male and female) approach me with the frustration of this. I totally understand how you feel. This is not 'spoiling' your child. This is setting them up for not only disappointment but failure in the future. News flash - this is not how society works. There are lots of reports and studies to support this. I know that when you are the parent who does this, that you are totally blind to your actions. You say, "I can treat my kid the way I want" or "If I want to spoil my child, I will." This is very frustrating for the parent that is looking out for their child's welfare and trying to make them a viable person in this world.
What kid is going to turn down 'stuff'? Yes stuff, that's all it is. They are providing material things to fill the void of not having the other parent present and trying to be your kid's friend.
These kids don't help with chores, don't make their beds, don't know how to do dishes, have to be constantly asked to brush their teeth and comb their hair and then huff and puff when asked to help out. It's all about them and frankly it's not their fault (totally). They don't know any better especially if one parent babies them and one expects a normal child/parent relationship. If you enable them now, right around the corner they will be teenagers and then you will be baffled why they are so disrespectful to you. That's because you've done everything for them. Now you're buying their booze and smokes and yet you don't understand why they're so angry and disrespectful to you. Well duh. This is what you have nurtured. These kids have no worldly skills. How's it working for you?
Maxine's tale: One day God was looking down at earth and saw all of the rascally behaviour that was going on...So He called His angels and sent one to earth for a time.
When the angel returned, he told God, 'Yes, it is bad on earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not.
God thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion.'
So God called another angel and sent her to earth for a time.
When the angel returned she went to God and said, 'Yes, it's true. The earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good...'
God was not pleased.
So He decided to e-mail the 5% who were good, because He wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them keep going.
Do you know what the e-mail said?
Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.
Pet peeve: When I'm travelling on the highway and someone pulls out from a side road in front of me and then putts along at less than highway speed. Really people! You are already stopped. Sit there until it is clear for you to go instead of cutting in and disrupting the flow of traffic. Our highways are busy enough without nuts like you out there. That's just me. Let me know what you think.
