Tonight, as I drove one of our children to a youth group we came upon cars parked both sides of the road. I started to drive between them when a car approaching decided he could get past them before I closed the gap. He could not make it and we ended up with him having to stop. Having my dog-collar on I looked the driver in the eyes and was about to smile when he went off into a torrent of abuse.
What was sad was that the originator of the abuse was not one of those young people but was a relatively old bloke. What is sadder still is that I often find the source of foul language and disgraceful attitudes lies not in the younger generation (and boy, they can be pretty foul), but in the generation who should know better.
Is it any wonder that the kids today are as they are when we find their grandparents exercising such awful behaviour and displaying such terrible traits as they do.
Recently I was involved in a situation where a five year old had told their teacher to go away (using a more robust Anglo-Saxon version). When the parent was asked about the child's behaviour they responded with, "WTF do you want me to do about it, you're the teachers!"
Tune the hearts of the fathers to the children . . . .
I remember when the older generation were a model for much of what was right, sadly this is no longer the case it seems.
Pax
1 comment:
As a member of the older generation! I do not take exception to this. I believe that swearing and abusive language has always been part of each generation, albeit, normally with the proviso that you did not swear in front of a lady.
The younger generation just seem to have been brought up in a different way from mine. I know that my children never heard me swear or use this type of language, but you cannot shelter them from what happens away from the home, at school, while out playing and in their 'social life'.
But the sort of repressed anger, which obviously caused this outburst from an someone from the older generation is perhaps the issue. Why do so many people have such explosive tempers? Why do they vent it in this way?
I don't have any answers, but just wonder at the sort of society we are creating, where swearing and profanity are regarded as the norm and not just plain bad manners.
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