Maybe We Should Blame Society, Not Parents

I am sure by now we have all seen the video of 68-year-old Karen Klein, the bus monitor who was being tormented by 12 and 13 year olds on a school bus. My heart broke watching that video, like I am sure everyone else’s did. The disrespect those kids showed that woman was totally uncalled for. Also in the news, was the outrage. “What kind of children are these” “How were they raised” What kind of parents do they have.” The blame game was being thrown around; these parents do not know how to raise their kids. So, I started thinking, is it really the parents fault?

As I was listening to all this, a part of my life came back to me, something I completely forgot until that minute. I grew-up on the lower East side of Manhattan in New York City back in 1950’s. A man lived on the block that all the kids made fun of, he was probably in his late 50’s early 60’s. He had a hunchback and his right hand would shake, we did not know back then but he had Parkinson’s. I remember one day myself and three other boys were making fun of him and teasing him, like we all had done so many times before. What I did not know at the time, was that my father was looking out of our apartment window, (we lived on the fourth floor.) Well, when I walked into the apartment that day, I received something I did not expect. I won’t go into details but like the old saying goes, I could not sit down for a week. Needless to say, I never made fun of or teased Izzy again and I always showed the proper respect for my elders.

A few years back a friend of mine took his daughter shopping to the supermarket. He was going up and down the aisles doing the shopping; she was sitting in the basket. As all kids do, she kept asking for everything she saw on the shelf, as all fathers do, he kept telling her no. As all kids do, she threw a fit, so her father slapped her on her leg and told her to stop, she did. What my friend did not know, is that the store manager called the police. When he got to the check-out, the police were there. It did not amount to anything, the police talked to my friend for a couple of minutes and even apologized, saying they have to check-out all complaints. If looks could kill, that manager would have been dead. My friend was giving him the evil eye.

Do you see where I am going with this story? When we hear stories of bad children our first reaction is to blame the parents, they must be terrible parents. How can we blame the parents, when society will not let us discipline our own children our own way. Our children are even taught in school that if their parents hit them, they should call 911. Why should children listen, there are no consequences anymore.
Sending them to their rooms? What kind of punishment is that? They have a T.V. cell phone, computer, video games and all other good stuff to keep them occupied. You call that punishment?

Maybe we should stop looking at the parents when kids do wrong and start looking at the way society is telling parents how they should raise their kids. If you do not believe in spanking your children than don’t. But don’t persecute other parents that do. Look, I am not saying that parents should be allowed to beat their kids to a pulp, but a couple of whacks on the rear-end just might help the kid learn something. Believe me, I learned that the hard way.

This is one man’s opinion.