What is it with the complete lack of parenting in today's society? This Bitchin' Brunette just returned from a middle school "event" for her high school freshman at one of SLC's most exclusive venues and is appalled by the adolescent behavior displayed in the presence of, and apparantely encouraged by, the parents of my generation. As a former middle school teacher, I know my way around the inner workings of the pimple brigade with all their angst and hormonal raging, but poor manners are not entirely developmental - they are mostly just the result of over-indulgent, laissez-faire parenting.
The fine young specimens with which I dined this evening were perfectly delightful (I suspect they detected the authoritative scent still lingering about my persons); however, all around the room - in the presence of parents and teachers alike - young people were being down-right rude and disrespectful to servers, adults, and the facility in general. Tipping on their chairs, mauling drapery, talking too loudly, filling their crystal water goblets with odds and ends from the salad plate - just a sample of the circus acts I witnessed. When I was a teen I saved THAT kind of behavior for home - my parents were the recipients of the worst I had to offer, not the general public.
I know for a fact that this is not just a symptom of their adolescent generation because every day I encounter down-right rude toddlers and tweens who don't know how to say "excuse me" or apologize when they step on your foot or whip you with their windbreaker. There is nothing worse than an unpleasant encounter with a snarky, three foot human being. And I blame the three footers' parents. On the occasions when said trespasses have taken place in the presence of parents, the "adults" have been just as oblivious and impolite as their offspring. YUCK! What is our society coming to when manners and consideration for others is no longer a chapter in the latest parenting manual? Who wants to live in a world full of tyrannical toddlers who rule the roost on their parents' watch and expect everyone else to treat them with the same deference? Negligent nit-wits (the parents, I mean).
Yes, I said negligent. Take a few minutes and observe modern parents and their children in public. Babies screaming in movies, toddlers reaching into your booth without restraint or reproach, children running through grocery stores and parking lots. Last weekend while shopping for a new car (yes, I am still trying to decide) I watched in horror as a young mother texted while her 3-year-old ran wild through the car lot - the CAR lot! Operative word CAR. Parents such as this are seemingly too busy texting and working their electronic gadgetry to hold their children's hands anymore! I can't count how many times I've been driving through a parking lot or down a street and a little person veered dangerously close the park strip or curb. What is going on with these people? The vice grip I held on both my children mirrored the same grip my own mother had on me (and still does!) whenever we were within miles of a potentially dangerous situation. Hell, my mother still makes me walk on the inside of the sidewalk so the car that veers out of control and drives up onto the sidewalk will kill her instead of (or at least before) me!
So, please, teach your children to say "excuse me," "please," "thank you" - all of those good, old-fashioned phrases that seem so out-of-date lately. Hold their hand when crossing the street, even if only to instill the message that some situations require extra caution. Show them you love them by teaching them and showing them decency and civility (so that someday others can love them, too). Don't assume that everyone finds your child's everything as wonderful and charming as you do. Teach them well and someday the world might embrace them with the same love and admiration that you do. But in the meantime, keep their sticky fingers out of my hair at IHOP!
D.
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