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Sept 18, 2002 I’m sure many of you remember an old saying that went; “Spare the rod and spoil the child." I am not sure exactly how much that applied back then because the rod wasn’t spared much for me. But alas, here I sit on the other end of the spectrum, noticing just how truthful it is. Now before all the wrong people get upset and start ranting about my last statement, let’s just take a little peek at what has happened to the youth of today. One thing I would like to inject now is that NEVER would I defend or condone the beating of a child. That and a man beating on a woman are two of the most pathetic happenings in our society today. I realize there are a lot of pressures on the youth of today, but I am old school when it comes to raising them. We got so caught up in protecting them from the insane minority that we took away one of the most useful tools in a parents’ arsenal. As you have figured out by now, I am referring to getting spanked whether with a belt or by hand. Now most of today’s youth have no idea what I am talking about, and the younger ones may never find it in their dictionaries in the future. When I was younger, spanking was not only allowed, but should you mess up really bad, you spent a lot of time thinking about it before you ever got punished. Reflecting back on those days, I realize that the spankings probably never hurt as much as the agony of the passage of time from when you knew it would happen until that first smack occurred. Dare I say that there were many times when I was just glad to get it over with, but I ALWAYS knew I had it coming! So now we flash forward a few years (never mind how many!) and notice that you can now be put in jail for spanking your kids. As I stated earlier, I do not believe in beating a child, but without the old discipline, the youth of today hold the upper hand over the parents, and they know it. They tell you to put them in “time-out” so they can look back and realize what they have done. HELLO, they know very well what they have done, and now there is not much you can do about it. You know that it is getting bad when a kindergartner can tell his parents that they cannot do anything to him or he will tell and they will be the ones that get into trouble. A kindergartner for goodness’ sake!! Is it any wonder that they grow older and the only time they really appreciate you is when you spend money on them, give them money to spend, or they are allowed to do some activity. But once that has passed, just take a notice how ungrateful and subordinate they become. Many of you may think I exaggerate, but I am willing to say that no matter how good you are to your children, those who have older ones will agree. It’s hard enough to bring up a child and raise them to know the right things to do, but to have nothing to bargain with leads to an enormous crisis. Most kids today have little or no respect for their parents or their elders. My goodness, if I swore at my parents the way youth do today, I knew I was getting a slap to the mouth or that ever tasty bar of soap. Try that now and you will be in jail and your kids taken away. I realize that many will not like what I have said, but think about when the youth of this generation are the ones that run the country. All we ask as parents is some respect and some help now and then. It makes me wonder if the word (respect) has already been erased from their vocabulary. In closing, I salute parents in their daily struggle to maintain an even keel and may God bless us all and help us through it. As my neighbor Ralph says, “Ya can’t play on the seesaw if the sides ain’t almost equal!” ------------ Willis Kirk Jr. is a 37 year old who is currently back in a 2 year college on his way to a degree. Email Willis: tekky2b@yahoo.com Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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