What are we teaching them?

I have read the recent parenting columns in the newspaper continually telling us how to parent our children, how to ensure that we give them timeouts, rewards, and of course choices. Choices! For children, not just teenagers but for elementary students.

When we were growing up our parents didn't give us a choice, it was simply you do it or you get spanked. Children knew the line, they knew the expectations, they new consequences. Now we have elementary students with cell phones, televisions and laptops. Ipods and texting have invaded our schools from gradeschool to high school. With all this technology its no surprise that children feel entiteled to do and say and have whatever it is they desire. My oldest child just said that he "needed" a ninetendo DS and that I had plastic I could use to purchase it for him. As I attempted to explain to him how I don't have money to be buying things that he really doesn't need, I began to question what we are teaching our children today.

Here we just approved this stimulus package to bail everyone out of something it seems. Yet, truly we are bailing out americans who not only purchased homes that perhaps were already out of their reach, but also americans who took a second mortgage out to put in a pool in their backyard. So, basically when I am trying to teach my children the value of a dollar and my goverment is bailingout those who over extended themselves.

I can appreciate helping those who were basically sucked into the housing frenzy, banks passing out cash to everyone regardless, it seems, whether they were actually able to afford the home. However, the people who put pools in their backyards, why are they being bailed out while I am paying my mortgage on time, my equity line, my bills. No one is knocking on my door and handing me a check!

When my children ask me why they can't have a tv in their room, or a cell phone at age 8, I have no problems telling them because those things are not a necessity, they are a luxury and truly not necessary for children. Children should be playing outside when its nice, coloring, drawing, playing board games, tag, sports, or riding a bike. Technology is a wonderful addition to our world, but perhaps parents started to rely on it a little too much in recent years.

It is our job as parents to teach our children that they have to earn respect and earn a living. That parents sometimes have to resort to more than just a timeout, a swat on the butt is not abuse, but a parenting technique most of us were raised with and we seem to have turned out alright. There is nothing wrong with setting duties for your children, or requiring your teenager to have a job in order to EARN their first car.

Thats my rant for today.....