Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Feeling disappointed in people lately.

Maybe it's just that my expectations of people are too high...but lately I've only found myself disappointed in people. I don't think it's too much to ask people to live up to their word, keep their promises or act like generally decent humans.

I think the saddest thing is that people of my generation go through life feeling that they are entitled and lazy. If they complain enough, or whine as the case may be, everything will be given to them. Another side effect of that behavior is their children, who learn from their parents that if they just act out generally people will just get sick of their bad behavior and give in to shut them up. How is this kind of child rearing helping anyone? It makes it exceedingly difficult to have my kids around other children because they are easily influenced. They think that because this kind of behavior works for those kids that it must be ok, and so they start to act like they are entitled and bratty. Not ok! It's enough to keep them away from most child geared activities. I am finding, though, that a great majority of this behavior is from the kids in the public school system. The activities that we are a part of with other homeschoolers have an entirely different atmosphere. The kids are thoughtful, generally well behaved, kind to others, and listen to adults even if they may not like or agree with what is going on.

Maybe it's that we're taking an interest in what type of people we are trying to grow our children into: caring, respectful, independent, generally decent humans.

Anthony's football is an example of me trying to hold my tongue in more ways than one. The one thing that keeps me from taking Anthony out of the whole situation is that Kevin is one of the coaches and holds the kids accountable for their bad behavior. Even by giving them time out of practice. I was pleased to see one mom even take her son and leave when he wouldn't "play nice". Yes, people, that is the RIGHT thing to do when your kid acts out!

Ok, I'll get off my soap box now.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thumbs up from this mom!

Megan said...

I love seeing how home schooled kids interact with their siblings. I think separating kids into age groups for 6+ hours a day with a one to 30 adult/child ratio just makes kids feel that they have to fight to survive. It's so sad to see sweet little kids turn into monsters after their first few months in the jail we call public education.
There are exceptions, but for the most part, I think you're right - we're failing our kids as a nation.

Susy said...

The world is a strange and stupid place. You're right, people think that everything should be handed to them on a silver platter. Makes me mad.