Who’s Running This Show?

     

     As far as I know, my job description as a parent does not say anything about serving as a punching bag for my kids. I know I don’t always make the best decisions and by no means am I a model parent, but I do know when to draw the line and stop my kids from acting inappropriately. However, some parents seem to be way too easy on their kids and allow them to just walk all over them.   Just over the past weekend, I came face to face with some of the most horrendous behavior I’ve seen in a long, long time.  And you all know that I not only live with twins, but I also now live with a furry-fied version of the son of Satan. So, I most certainly know about bad behavior!  However, I am absolutely and completely appalled by the way some parents allow their own kids to treat them.  Whatever happened to living by the phrase, “I brought you into this world, and I can take you right out of it”?  Sadly, it seems that many of today’s parents just let their kids wear the pants and run the whole mother truckin’ show.  

     The first shocking display of misconduct occurred at the soccer fields.  A little six year old boy ran over during a break to ask his mom if she’d brought his water bottle, and when she told him that she’d forgotten to bring it, this little punk had the audacity to actually kick his poor mother repeatedly in the shins.  I was in shock and think I may have even silently yelled out, “WTF?!”  I could not believe that a kid could have that big of an ego to think that his very own creator deserved a beat down for not bringing a friggin’ water bottle?!  Get your own stinkin’ bottle, you little bastard!  I’m pretty sure the woman was mortified to be treated like this in front of all the other judgmental parents out there, but she really didn’t even address the issue at all. She just kind of brushed over it and moved on with her conversation. I’m telling you right now that I would’ve marched my son’s little smart ass straight to the car and then all the way home.  

     The second disturbing incident occurred at a local neighborhood bar and grill.  This one particularly obnoxious dad was out to dinner with his sons, completely ignoring them in lieu of his cell phone.  At the end of their meal, one of the sons was trying to get Distant Dad’s attention so that they could leave and catch a movie.  Now, granted, the dad was totally clueless, continuously talking business REALLY LOUDLY on his cell phone, but this did not in any way warrant the kind of eruption that soon followed.  The son started to get more and more fired up when all of his efforts were continuously brushed off, so he grew louder and louder in his cries for Dad.  The pleading soon turned into hitting, which then turned into fist pummeling.  Before I knew it, the kid was literally punching the crap out of his dad’s back while screaming for him to get off the phone.  It was such a loud and violent outburst that all eyes in the restaurant immediately turned to this table in horror.  The worst part was that the kid was probably about ten or eleven years old and way too old to be throwing a temper tantrum.  And just like the episode at the soccer field, the dad never even attempted to discipline his bratty-ass kid.  They simply paid their bill and left for the movie.  Again, my kid would most certainly not be rewarded with a movie after pulling a Mike Tyson on me like that.    

     I just really don’t get this parental lack of interest in teaching our kids how to behave both at home and especially in public.  Are parents just too thinly stretched these days to be actively involved in the disciplining of their offspring?  If they are, then we are in serious trouble as a society. Sure, everybody’s tired and stressed and busy as can be, but family should always be the first priority.  Good behavior isn’t something you can pick up for your kids at the mall, and it’s not something they can attain by popping a pill.  It is the job of the parent to get off his/her ass and teach it to the kid.  And not only is it the parent’s responsibility to teach it, but it is also up to the parent to demonstrate good behavior himself. There are already enough adult yahoos in this world as it is. Do we really need our youth to grow up to become a-holes as well?

Invasion of the Manner Snatchers

     

     Is it my imagination or have manners all but become extinct anymore?  Seriously, have we all just decided to become a-holes and only think about ourselves?  I mean, crap, I’ve got places to go and people to see too, but that doesn’t mean I need to stampede the little old lady in front of me to get there any faster.  How am I supposed to teach my kids about manners if nobody anywhere around them seems to have any of their own?

     One of my constant encounters with rudeness takes place each and every week at my favorite yoga class.  There’s this one certain woman who inevitably always plops her shit down right next to my mat.  I cringe every time I think about trying to meditate next to this crazy bitch.  She is like a bull in a china shop.  The woman doesn’t have a clue how to be quiet about anything.  She’s constantly texting on her obnoxiously loud phone (does she not know about the silent feature?!) and every so often even taking calls right in the middle of the freaking class. And she never stays for the duration of the class. She waits until everyone is lying completely still in “savasana,” which is the word for corpse pose, to pack up all her crap without any regard whatsoever to the fact that everyone is supposed to be in a complete state of relaxation by this point of the class.  It’s a little hard to be relaxed when homegirl’s undoing the velcro strap for her mat, digging in her purse for her keys, putting on her clunky shoes, and literally stomping across the width of the room, all so she can be two or three minutes ahead of the crowd.  It really pisses me off, and I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for the instructor to keep her cool. She must be a lot more centered than me.

     Another one of my recent brushes with the rudeness of humankind was as I was leaving CVS the other day.  I needed to turn left out of the parking lot, which was not an easy task, given the super busy street it intersects.  I was like the chicken trying to cross the road, just waiting as patiently as I could for any opening.  Chalk it up to bad timing cause I wasn’t going anywhere fast.  All of a sudden, I heard someone laying on the horn behind me.  I glanced into my rearview mirror to see yet another bad-mannered lunatic screaming and cussing and flailing her arms about in the car behind me. What in holy hell did this insane woman want me to do?  Did she honestly expect me to just go barreling out into oncoming traffic and push the other cars out of the way for her?  When I finally was able to turn, she yelled “Stupid bitch!” and flipped me off through her open window.  Hmmm, seems to me that she’s the one not quite playing with a full deck if she thought causing a multi-car pileup seemed like a reasonable way for her to get where she needed to go more quickly.

     And yet another case of tactlessness with which I continually cross paths takes place right here in my very own neighborhood with other fellow dog owners.  It’s beyond me how some of my neighbors don’t seem to have any qualms at all with allowing their loose dogs to just randomly roam the streets.  This one dog in particular is always wandering around in other people’s yards just looking for the perfect spot to lay a monstrous pile of dung, which of course won’t EVER be poop scooped by his owner since he is MIA.  Then there’s also another sad excuse for a dog that runs amuck through our hood on just three short and stumpy little legs. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t think it’s the wisest decision in the world to let a gimpy little mutt hobble about the streets all alone.  Hell, that’s probably how he lost his leg in the first place.  ”Lucky,” as my husband and I refer to him, is always causing passersby to stop and question if the poor thing is lost.  And, naturally, he is also leaving little piles of brown surprises in all the neighbor’s yards.  If I, myself, didn’t have any cooth, I would plop our new pup smack dab on their doorsteps to leave a few things of his own behind to thank them for their neighborly ways. But, you see, I actually do have some shreds of decency in my bones, so I will not ever do that.

     I really don’t understand what has happened to our society.  What about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you? Have people just become too busy or better yet, too selfish to think about the consequences of their actions?  It seems to me that we all need to take a little lesson from Aretha and start showing some R-E-S-P-E-C-T for one another.