by Brent White

Created on: April 02, 2010

Discipline.  It is a three-syllable word, a simple three-syllable word.  Ten letters, not four, but to some people you would think it was a four-letter word, because they don't understand the meaning of the word.  Some kids are well-disciplined, and maybe a time-out when they misbehave is sufficient to set them on the right track.

Let me put this bluntly.  THEY ARE THE MINORITY.  Most kids start as toddlers testing their parents' limits, as others have said.  Hey, we've all been there.  It's how we learn limits in life...that is, if we are taught them.  Therein lies the problem.  Parents often DO NOT set limits for their children, and you see it every day.  Kids scream and holler in restaurants, and not just fast-food places, either.  I have had dinner ruined at several moderate-price restaurants because of kids yelling, screaming, running all over the place, and throwing food on the floor.  Aww, it's so cute.

Whoa, that was a sarcasm overload in one sentence.  IT IS NOT CUTE and I sure as heck do not appreciate parents ignoring it or giving that token "stop, now" in a voice that wouldn't even raise a librarian's eyebrows.

Trouble in school?  Oh, no, it's not a parent's "perfect, sweet little child" that was caught on video beating the snot out of a smaller kid.  No, junior just could not have possibly forged the parents signature on that all-F's report card, even though the parents never saw it, but somehow their signature wound up on the card anyway...in pencil.

Let me give you some examples of how my generation of people was brought up (I'm nearing 40, for a frame of reference).

1.  Okay, I'll start off.  That thing about forging a signature?  I know from experience how egregious this is.  I did it, and, though I am not proud of that fact, I won't lie about it, though I did then.  I was a pre-teen at the time and, for whatever reason, I often "forgot" to do homework.  In one class, I had a mid-term grade report that wasn't bad, but stapled to it was a copy of a half-baked debate report that I had hurriedly written to stave off a 0.  I woke up one morning, before my parents were up, sat at my desk, and copied my mother's signature on to the report and handed it in in class that day.  My teacher at the time, actually a very kind woman, looked at me with knowing eyes and asked if I had forged the signature.  I told her no and maintained it for

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>