Today was my mother's birthday and what started out as a normal dinner at a Greek place near our apartments turned into much more. The woman who owns the restaurant has been going through some problems trying to understand how American children are put through what they are put through, and it turns out Greece and France are much better places for children. She grew up the daughter of a French diplomat and sat with presidents and other diplomats at dinner and and flew on planes where children were allowed to run around and be children. As everyone continued to talk she began to realize that children are trained like dogs in this country. If we do not obey we are punished, and because that is how we were raised we really see nothing wrong with this.
"Because I said so..." Those are words that probably about every other parents says to their child for a reason as to why they can't do what they want. This woman never heard those words. If she wanted to do something she had to debate it, make her argument clear as to why she should be allowed to do something. If she could not, then she did not do it. End of story. I honestly think American parents should take a page from European parents and not train their children, but raise them with love and respect. That is how they will grow to respect you. Because they are your children, does not automatically give you respect. It is not a birth right because you are our parents, it is earned, like every other person must earn our respect. "Because I said so" is not a reasonable answer to anything.
I also realized tonight that we ignore our problems or, if they are too big to ignore, we use drugs to solve it. There is a 16 year old boy I work with who is afraid of thunder, as am I, but he was shaking because he was out on lot when a thunderstorm started. Well, a woman I was helping with a carry out immediately turned to me and said that boy should see someone about his ADD. I was not about to argue with her because she was a customer but in my head I was thinking, 'Lady, that is none of your business and if it was you would know enough to not say stupid stuff like that.' I could no fathom what would warrant such a rude comment.
What do you think? Do you think there is anything wrong with the way society treats their children? How they treat the people that will soon be running it? What do you think should be done differently?