Bear in mind that I am the mother of three boys; 18, 15 and 8. They are well-behaved, well-mannered, respectful of others, and respectful of themselves as well. It has been a long, and sometimes weary road that we have traveled these 18 years. I am continually told by friends and strangers how courteous and thoughtful my boys are. They are that way because we made them that way. From the moment they were born, we began to mold them into who they are today. I find it horribly tragic that my husband and I, stupid 18 year-olds at the time of our first sons birth, had enough common sense to know how to raise a respectful child. We knew we wanted our children to be the kind of children all people would enjoy being around. No spoiling, no rule-breaking, no nonsense.
The flip-side of this has become far too common place. Parents allowing children to parent themselves. No rules, no consequences, no expectations. When you do that to your child you are setting them up for failure, I have witnessed this countless times. Parents too busy with their careers compensate by over indulging their children or parents that have no real desire or concern for the well being of their children or their communities. Both allow too many freedoms with no structure or discipline.
I KNOW . . . I KNOW. . . in the coming days we will learn much about this girls family life. It will not be the nuclear family; it will be a troubled one. There will be past events that surface. They will blame her ethnicity, they will blame society, they will blame the government for not providing them with something, don't know what, but they'll find it. The attorney for the mother has already began his mantra and the mother is outraged that this happened to her little girl.
I have read several different reports of what happened in that school that day. I understand that the officer's approached the girl and hand-cuffed her after she had started to calm down. BUT, BUT, BUT, if that was my child, I would have been the one handing the police officers the handcuffs and followed it with "and oh yea, make sure you set his ass down real hard in the back of your cruiser because I want him scared and humiliated so that this will never happen again." And the mother? If I were her I would be hiding my head in the sand embarrassed by what my child had done, and begged the school board to not go public with it because I knew that ultimately it was my fault for raising a disrespectful, unruly thug.
I really don't care if you agree with me or not. I know the truth, I witness it everyday of my life. I'll take my boys with how they know how to open the doors for women or the elderly. I'll take my boys with how they know how to respect their coaches and teachers. I'll take my boys with how they know how to offer a helping hand when needed and also I'll gladly keep going to their parent/teacher conferences and leaving with a smile on my face. Know why? Because I know what I'm doing is right for them, right for me, and right for all of mankind.
**Just Because You Have The Right To Do Something Does Not Mean That It's The Right Thing To Do**
Posted by Stacy at April 23, 2005 10:48 PM | TrackBack