#selfiesunday: A little rant about parents that don't do their job.

I have to give a rant-and-rave speech in my public speaking class on Tuesday, soooo I figured I'd use my blog as a platform to practice. The topic of my rant is parents that don't do their job. We'll have to define what exactly a parent's job is, but we'll get to that. First, I want to share with you the story of how I was inspired to rant about this:

My mom and I were in a local grocery store, in the produce section when we first spotted this family; A mom and her two daughters, who looked to be about 12 and 10 years old. Each of those daughters were on their own motorized carts, zipping around, bumping into other carts, taking up whole isles, and yelling at each other from across the produce section. The mother constantly trailed behind them, letting the carts occupy her rowdy kids, where she shopped in peace, the other customers shopped in agony, swerving to try to avoid these girls. I could not believe it!

First of all, if this mother didn't want to deal with her children while grocery shopping, she should have left them at home. They looked plenty old enough to stay home alone for an hour or so. Secondly, what is she teaching her kids about the use of the carts? The purpose of those carts are for people that are disabled, and can't walk around the store, and she just taught her girls to be completely inconsiderate of those people, for the sake of their own interests. Thirdly, those girls are at an age where they should NOT have to be entertained in a store; at ten/twelve, I followed my mom around the grocery store quietly, without causing a fuss, because I was taught better.

We were almost done shopping, when we saw two girls who looked to be about 13/14, and they had noticed the younger girls on the carts. Those 13/14 year old girls made a beeline for the front of the store, and claimed a motorized cart of their own, one riding on the back, one operating it. SO, this makes three motorized carts, made for disabled people, being ridden around by 4 able-bodied children who apparently haven't been taught how to be considerate of others. My mom and I kept giving each other incredulous glances. This was craziness! Where are the responsible adults?

So this is my proposal to parents: DO YOUR JOB. Your job is to raise children that grow up to be responsible, effective members of society. This means to raise children that are active (and not lazy), kind, considerate, and respectful. Teach your child to think about things from all different points of view. Teach them to put the needs of others before their own. Teach them to be helpful to those who are in need. Teach them how to be independent.

And most importantly, understand that sometimes you will not always be their best friend. My mother always told me: "I'm your mom first, and your best friend second." That's how it should be. When you become the keeper of a little human life, you become responsible for the information that you feed that little life, every single minute of the day. This doesn't mean you are verbally teaching them because most time, it's with your actions. Do you think the mom in the grocery store told her girls "Handicapped people don't matter. Just go ahead and have fun! That's more important than being considerate of others." Proooobably not. But that's exactly what she taught her children when she allowed them to ride on those motorized carts that were most definitely not meant for them.

I do not have children yet, and I don't plan to for a long time. But when I do, I'm gonna do it right. I plan on raising my children the way that I describe above. And I know that the formula two paragraphs up doesn't always equate to perfect parenting, or perfect children, because kids after all are humans, but I think it's a good foundation to base your actions off of.

Just a little food for thought. :) Hopefully I can fine tune this and put it into speech form and ace it in class. Happy Sunday readers!