Since my own childhood, parenting has gone soft
By: ALEXIS AUSTRIACO
Staff Writer
Has the concept of respect changed much since the ‘90s? I remember when I was a kid, if I would talk back to my dad or do something stupid, I would have to run to the bathroom and lock the door behind me to avoid a potential butt-whooping. That never worked, and when he was able to reach me to scold me, l would never call him names, yell at him or hit him. Many of my friends also grew up in that time and told me similar stories about what would happen if they disrespected their parents. We had this in common: we did not, because it would not go over well.
There is a difference between a butt-whooping and abuse. Abuse should never happen to a child, but a spanking, in my opinion, is sometimes what a child needs to learn some respect for their parents; however, not many parents seem to do that these days.
If kids were to disrespect a teacher in the ‘90s when I was growing up, they would get a belt to the bottom. In current days, however, if a kid talks back to a teacher there are hardly any repercussions. Another problem with this is that a lot of parents blame the teacher for why their child is disrespectful.
Now not all kids are like this, but working as a server I have noticed that kids are getting really ornery in general — in addition to doing vile and disrespectful things to their parents, grandparents and teachers. The first thing I noticed is that when a parent or an adult is talking to their child usually the proper thing for the child to do is to respond. Instead the child decides to yell, ignore them (especially if they are playing a video game on their tablet), give them attitude or — better yet — hit them.
It is not only the kid’s fault, it is the parents too. I remember serving a table of a dad and two kids and the dad told the son repeatedly that he cannot get a smoothie. So instead of the son understanding that he cannot get a smoothie, he had to have it his way. The little demon hit his father in the face. As a result, the father was inclined to reward him by getting him that smoothie.
That would not slide if I had done that; I would have had to run to the bathroom in another country and bolt that door permanently shut. In the end, though, the kids are not to blame for why they are becoming more disrespectful since the past two decades it is mostly the parents who have changed. Parents are too afraid or too lazy to properly discipline their children. Parents in the ‘90s were not as afraid to discipline their kids as they are now, so now kids get away with a lot more and become more disrespectful to their elders. Because of that, it is hard to believe that the concept of respecting your elders ever existed.
