Thursday, August 19, 2010

tell me something good


i'm having an internal battle. i think we all need to accept responsibility for the things we do. the good as well as the not so good. i also think we need to be respectful of each other. and while i'm ranting a bit, i also think what's most important is having a good heart and good manners.

this is where i run into a wall. when do we expect kids to start having this and how do we expect them to learn it? and why does it sometimes seem as if we expect the kids to have better manners than we, as adults, do? they learn from our example and we've got some pretty lousy examples out there.

i worry that we're going to release a group of kids into the work force and the world who behave in the most entitled way. i find this behavior pretty unattractive when seen displayed by adults, but when it's evident in kids, it's worse. what boss is going to allow this behavior for any length of time?  not all of these kids have a trust fund that eliminates the need to work...and a boss will be in their future.

and even if we forget about the boss for a minute...don't we want to raise a generation of caring, compassionate and resilient people? isn't that one of our responsibilities as parents? when i think about zach in the future, the adult zach, i see him as good. it's a pretty simple word that for me encompasses everything important.

wwcd: next step is getting him through the teenage years...in 1 piece and still good

1 comment:

  1. from aunt judy:

    What u see is what u get. what u hear is what u will hear back. children will behave in a manner that has been before them throughout their childhood, into adulthood.

    A perfect example - I was approaching a door before going into the mall...there was a young child approximately ten or eleven. he opened the door for himself, looked back and saw me right behind him, and didn't hold the door for me. he looked at me, but it never entered his mind that the polite thing was to hold the door for me. obviously he was never taught this.

    it is obvious children mimic what that see. they listen and absorb every kind word, and never forget the hurt and pain of abuse, of embarrassment. shamed and ridiculed in public places and at home. scars like those last a lifetime.

    Give a smile, get one back. give a compliment, receive a smile back. There are no fees, no charges for kindness. a light touch, a hug, a smile brings so much joy.

    ReplyDelete