I've had some friends over for dinner. Fifteen in fact, plus two children. I did a 'Nandos' night, 20 chicken portions, bowls full of wedges, coleslaw and salad. A good friend of mine brought along two cakes, 1 Banoffee, 1 Victoria sponge.
The night went swimmingly, friends and neighbours all chatting and having a great night. We didn't run out of food, there was plenty of wine and lots of laughs.
So, you are probably wondering why I am writing about this...well, i'm in trouble...big trouble.
One of the kids kept stealing cream from the top of the cakes. I was a bit miffed as there weren't many slices and I wanted people to be able to help themselves without a kids snotty finger marks in them. The kid was told off by the parent. The kid continued...and by this point had eaten the top off seven cakes.
And this is where I came in...I encouraged the child to do the same on the 8th...then tapped the back of his head so it splatted into the cake...Now in my book, lesson learned...although it seemed that some of the parents (including the child's parent) did not agree...at all. Now don't get me wrong, i'm sorry that the child really cried, but I really do think that kids today are mollycoddled. My Dad would have done the same to me and I probably wouldn't make the same mistake again.
What do you do in this day and age when a child doesn't listen and is naughty? It seems like these days, kids have carte blanche to do absolutely anything that they want, and the only consequence is a 'naughty step' for four minutes or no sweets for a day.
What is the World coming to when we teach our kids that actions have no consequences? What will the next generation be like? Employees will be bunking off work, disobeying the rules and back-chatting the boss and then being sent to the stairwell to sit on the top step for four minutes?
I have friends who were brought up with no discipline and they find life so much harder as an adult than I do. I respect social etiquette, I adhere (mostly!) to the rules and I am well mannered and don't find rejection or apologies hard. These friends struggle with the simplest of principles: work hard and you are rewarded, piss people off and you are not. It's that simple.
I'm told I don't understand this because I don't have kids, but this is utter rubbish. I was once a kid, I was disciplined and I learned my manners and right and wrong. I am not expecting kids to be whacked or caned, I simply believe that there have to be rules that are adhered to, manners that must be observed and that actions have consequences.
Am I an old dragon, or has the parenting World gone totally mad?
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