When WE were kids...

A friend has been telling me about an online discussion with people all over the country that started with the following statement-“If I had talked to my parent’s the way kids today talked to theirs…..”


You can probably imagine some of the answers. I’m sure you have some of your own. She has read me some of her favorites, “They would have knocked me into the next century”, “I shudder to even think about it”, “I think I would have been struck dumb”, “I can tell you one thing I wouldn’t be here today writing this”, and more that I can’t share due to content.

The general idea seems to be that we were all pretty sure that certain death awaited us if we disrespected our parents. The funny thing is that most of us knew this without being told, without being threatened and without any evidence. We were not abused. Many of us were not even spanked much. But we KNEW!!

I’ve been thinking about this. How did we know? Well, for one thing, everything around us told us adults especially parents were the authorities in our lives. They dressed differently than us, they talked differently than us, they had privileges we did not have. They worried about all the things in life that needed to be worried about so that we didn’t have to. We were grateful and respect was easy to give.

It also helped that NONE of our TV or movie children were rude to grownups. Children did not consider themselves equal to adults. Even more important, I think was the fact that adults never tried to be equal to children.

I remember a story told in a parenting class that I took once. It went something like this- you’re driving along enjoying a beautiful day when you notice flashing red lights on a police car behind you. You pull over wondering what you had done wrong as you watch the officer walk slowly to your door. You roll the window down giving the officer a sheepish smile and say, “Is there something wrong officer?”

The officer begins by yelling, “I’ll say there’s something wrong. How many times do I have to tell you people to slow down when you drive past that school? I’m sick and tired of pulling you over day after day after day to tell you this again and again. “

Then he kicks the car, throws done his clipboard and screams,” Don’t you ever think that I have better things to do with my life than to keep you brats from hitting some kid and ruining all our lives?”

Now, he bends down low to the car, getting close to your face and growls, “Well, it’s going to end right now, I’m telling you, right now! “ And you notice him reaching for his gun.

Now, the question is, are you still sitting there thinking about what you had done wrong? Are you even listening to him anymore? Or are you thinking, “This person is crazy, I need to get out of here!”

That’s the view from my side of the street today. What’s yours?