Blogging For Kicks

You know, I’ve been considering buying my daughter a portable DVD player to take with her when she takes her kids on trips. It seems like a good way to keep them interested in something and make the trips easier for their parents. There’s nothing worse than tired, cranky, arguing kids in the backseat when you’re trying to get somewhere on time. I’ve been looking around at the prices, trying to find the best deal. One thing I found out today, tho, is that no matter what the price at K-Mart, I won’t be buying it there.

I saw a commercial for one today, and it really bugged me. Maybe I’m being picky, but I really didn’t like the message it portrayed and I don’t want to reward whoever thought it up by giving them my money for the product.

The commercial shows a man and woman in a car, obviously on a long trip, with two young children in the back seat. Those kids are yelling, pushing, arguing, and carrying on like savages all the while, with the parents sitting up front feeling sorry for themselves. All at once whatever they were arguing over, whether it was a book or a game I couldn’t tell, went flying into the front and whacked the mother upside the head, and still neither parent did anything. The announcer then comes on talking about how a portable DVD can make traveling easier, and you can get one at K-Mart.

Now, I grew up traveling with my parents from one end of California to the other, and at least three of four times each year we traveled from wherever we were living at the time to one or the other of my grandparent’s houses, sometimes to both in one trip. My brother and I knew that we were to sit quietly, read our comic books, play car games, or whatever, and that’s what we did. To put it simply, we realized if we didn’t, we wouldn’t like the consequences. My dad wasn’t above pulling the car to the side of the road, getting out, and spanking both of us while reminding us that we were not animals and needed to act like decent human beings. We learned to behave.

Are we really so afraid of disciplining our kids these days that we will allow them to act like wild animals and do nothing rather than teach them how to act right? And if we do let them act that way, do we deserve any pity because of it? I think not. I was taught to be quiet when told to be, to be courteous to my elders, no matter whether I liked them or not, and to respect my parents. I knew what I could and couldn’t do, and tried my best not to do what I shouldn’t. I never “sassed” my parents, I never “sassed” any other adult, and I survived just fine, thank you very much. My psyche never suffered because I was taught manners and made to use them, and any spanking I got never left any permanent damage to my rearend.

I don’t understand why parents feel they have to let their kids do whatever they want to do these days, as if any restrictions on them will somehow turn them into criminals or freaked-out psychos. Kids need limits, they do better when they know what those limits are and live by them, and they actually learn to live and let live. My mom was a “Mean Mom”, and so was I, because I realized the value of what her “meaness” had taught me. I’d like to share something I found on another blog today. It so well describes my mother’s parenting style, and my own, and I think it might do some good. So here, courtesy of supermom at Sending Smiles Across The Miles, is “Mean Mom”.

I loved you enough . . . to ask where you were going, 
with whom, and what time you would be home.

I loved you enough to be silent and let you
discover that your new best friend was a creep.

I loved you enough to make you go pay for the
bubble gum you had taken and tell the clerk, "I
stole this yesterday and want to pay for it."

I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours
while you cleaned your room, a job that should have
taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough to let you see anger,
disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must
learn that their parents aren't perfect.

I loved you enough to let you assume the
responsibility for your actions even when the
penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

But most of all, I loved you enough . . . to say
NO when I knew you would hate me for it.
Those were the most difficult battles of all. I'm
glad I won them, because in the end you won, too.

And someday when your children are old enough to
understand the logic that motivates parents, you
will tell them.

Was your Mom mean? I know mine was. We had the
meanest mother in the whole world! While other kids
ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal,
eggs, and toast. When others had a Pepsi and a
Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches. And you
can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was
different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all
times! . You'd think we were convicts in a prison. She
had to know who our friends were, and what we were
doing with them. She insisted that if we said we
would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an
hour or less.
We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve
to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work. We
had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to
cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash
and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie
awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time
we were teenagers, she could read our minds and had
eyes in the back of her head. Then, life was really
tough!

Mother wouldn't let our friends just honk the horn
when they drove up. They had to come up to the door
so she could meet them. While everyone else could
date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until
we were 16.

Because of our mother we missed out on lots of
things other kids experienced. None of us have ever
been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other's
property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all
her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated,
honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean
parents just like Mom was.

I think that is what's wrong with the world today.
It just doesn't have enough mean moms!