To be a parent.

       To be a parent today is probably the hardest job you'll ever have to do. As we all know the government and society hasn't been much help, unless you consider making it harder to raise your child help. I was never one for hitting a child, but I think the worse thing is letting the kids know it's not an option. With them knowing that no matter what they do the worse thing that can happen is they may be sent to their room, or not be allowed out or even god forbid get yelled at, who wouldn't push buttons. Now I've noticed just as I'm sure you have that the respect level kids/teens have today towards their parents as well as other adults has gone to a disgustingly low level. From what I remember growing up you respected your parents, you were still a kid and nobody is perfect, yet sometimes you need to test your limits, but you were to always be respectful to other adults outside of the home.
      When I was growing up there was always a fear factor that you didn't want to get into trouble or I guess I could say you didn't want to get caught. With the huge factor of the not knowing what's going to happen is taken out of the equation things are done without worry or thought. Again hitting a child is not the answer but I see nothing wrong with having a fear factor thrown in the mix, if you do that I'll ? Let them wonder. Marinate if you will. There is so much bad and who cares out there isn't life is hard enough? You're not even able to be home with them much because bills need to be paid, we all there's never enough money. That's why I've always made it a point to explain everything the best I could. No! because you could get hurt, or No! because it'll turn the wrong colour. If you leave too much to think about there's a good chance it'll go the wrong way. It's like if you say to someone even an adult "don't open the door whatever you do", there's a good chance the door is going to be opened. There is another factor that makes things hard and that's the fact that kids are getting smarter and smarter as time goes on. With all the technology out there it makes it easier to learn, heck my daughter was using the computer at three years old. Mainly playing games that teach, like math, spelling and reading. It just seems that it's easier to learn the wrong things, and it's not so easy to block anymore either. As I'm typing I thought it could actually be a money thing, blocking the computer makes other things harder to access, it's a pain in the butt. It's almost like they want you to buy your child their own computer, you can block sites they shouldn't be looking at right now, and at the same time no one is effected by the changes made to the settings. Back to the topic is seems their using the smarter and smarter for not so smarter decisions. Only using it for the actual games they play or if the end result is going to work in their favour. The only other thing that I've noticed is the way kids play and get along, they don't seem to play like we used to. If I'm remembering correctly all the kids on the block played together, sometimes depending on where you lived of course. The street hockey games had more than enough players, often to many. There is a lot more competition between them now as well, that I don't remember seeing as much, and also starts way too early.
       I just think that we need to as parents pay as much attention to what our kids are doing at all times as much as possible. They make things so easy now for our kids to get into, and learn. Give them the explanation they need even if it's not a harmful or dangerous thing. Of course all we can do is teach to the best of our abilities, and know that we did our best, our kids will most likely be okay. Everyone knows that the government and some of the laws don't make it any easier, and with both parents working there is not much time to be with our kids as it is. So if we are there for our kids with the time we have, pay attention, and teach them with an explanation our kids should be alright. To be continued..........