I feel strongly about a lot of things, so this was a tough one. Then the thing that has been bothering a lot lately popped into my head; how a lot of children don’t have respect for anything, especially for their parents and other elders.

Last Tuesday my grandfather was beat up in his OWN front yard by several kids ranging in ages 10-16 years old.  They were throwing the stones in my grandparents’ driveway at their camper.  My grandfather, who is 69 years old and a veteran, went outside to ask them to please stop. Their response, from what my mom told me, was “We play baseball, so we can throw things whenever we want.” My grandfather was then jumped and what the doctors think, one of the kids hit him in the head with one of the stones in the side of his head. He went to the ER, even though he didn’t want to, but since he had a stroke in 2007, it was best. It came back clear, but he had a welt over his ear with 4 inch cuts on either side.

Luckily my grandmother was calling 911 before the conflict start. So they were all caught. One of the children had a prior and was attending anger management for beating up his grandfather! All the kids are going to be charged and my grandparents are trying to get them to pay for all medical bills.

What is going on with parenting these days? I know I don’t have children of my own, but I work with children. I am a preschool teacher and I spend most of my waking hours with MANY children. Most of my students do not have a respect for ANYTHING: Parents, adults, teachers, rules, toys, I could keep going. It makes me really sad.

Parents need to stop being best friends to their children. They have enough friends, they need role models and for someone to tell them NO once in awhile.This graphic says it all!