Modelling Bad Behaviour

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