“Mommy doesn’t spank me!”
Kids screaming in stores, throwing food in restaurants, screaming at and embarrassing their parents when they are told “NO!” This is the evidence of one of our biggest problems in society today-the lack of discipline children are subjected to. How do we address this problem? It is time to tell these parents that they are ruining their children’s lives by letting them act this way.
First of all, for those who do not know the official definition, a temper tantrum is defined by WebMD as “an unplanned, unintentional expression of anger, often with physical and verbal outbursts.” Tantrums are characterized, typically, by crying, yelling, and flailing the arms and legs. They can last between 30 seconds and 2 minutes and, just like a bad storm, are at their worst in the very beginning. The main age for tantrums are between 1 and 4 but older children, and even some adults, can throw them.
We must ask ourselves, on whose shoulders does the blame fall? I recently read an article about a 5 year old who threw a temper tantrum in school. The school officials had to call the police to take her away because she “swung” her fists at an assistant principal and a teacher “several times.” (complete article here-video included) Her mother has complained about the way the school “handled it.” But once again, the school had to handle it because the mother allowed the child to act like that. So whose responsibility is it that the future generation of our country doesn’t grow up believing that the whole world revolves around them? Our government? Our society?
Many people would ask “Okay, so what are your suggestions?” I think we should stop indulging their every whim. Just the other day I went to the movies with my friends and as we were standing in the lobby talking we heard this little girl throwing a fit because he dad told her she could not get a toy out of the little machines. Of course her dad pulled out a dollar as soon as her screaming got louder and bought her a toy. As a result, the sleeping baby that her mother was holding woke up and also started screaming. What should the father have done instead of giving the child the money for the toy? He should have spanked her, told her no, and then left the theater so as to not bother the other occupants. Or at least that is what would have happened to me. I can honestly say I do not know a lot of suggestions for this problem our society faces, but I can say that the children of the next generation need to be spanked.
When reading a magazine at my grandparents house at Christmas there was a little caption that said (and I’m paraphasing) “If you ever repeat any of this I will beat the snot out of you” and then in parenthesis it said “of course we can’t do that know a days of someone will call DHS on you.” I just thought it was hilarious because it is so true. My dad has a friend that was spanking his child in Wal*Mart one day and an old lady interfered and told him to stop “hitting” him. The dad looked at her and said “lady if you don’t want the same thing then you should leave and leave us alone.” I also thought that was hilarious. My point is people think that children are these fragile things that don’t need to be punished when they do bad things, but in reality, when these children grow up, they won’t be the “good” children that listen when authority is talking to them but they will be the ones who text in class when you get 8 hours of Saturday school for it, or the ones that roll their eyes when an authority figure tells them to do something they don’t want to do. What I am saying is that the children who were punished for doing the wrong thing when they were little, are the children who will grow up with the best morality.
I don’t claim to know all the answers because I don’t. But what we need to do as a society is come together and help come up with ideas. How do we combat this problem? How do we effect our children’s future by never punishing them? How do we change the way society looks upon the parents?
Amen! Be thankful you have good parents that care enough to set boundaries and discipline you when you cross them.
Discipline: our society does lack this, and to function, our society needs to fix this. But can we? Parents need to discipline their children at a very young age. It is no one else’s decision. Personally, I don’t think there is any way anyone can fix this problem unless the parents themselves decide to change. It is the parents own, personal decision to decide how they will raise their children—no one else’s.