I've been in St. Catharines the last little while taking care of some family matters. While I've been here I've been chauffering my mother around. Hey, mom did it for me when I was a kid and couldn't drive so I can do it for her now that's she's over 80 and they wont let her drive.
A few days ago we were travelling along and up ahead.....peddling in front of me was a young girl...maybe 10 or 11. Sort of the all Canadian suburban kid. Pink bike with matching pink helmet. Streamers coming out of her handle bars and a cute little blue plastic carrier. Now, I was doing the speed limit, I have to do the speed limit when I'm with my mom. In her eyes I'm still the kid at highschool who needed 2 cracks at getting out of grade 9. If I'm doing 55 in a 50 I've failed the course and she lets me know in terms that are not uncertain.
I'm coming up to the girl...and...without warning...without a signal...she decided to pull a 1-80 right in front of me. Not sure what possessed her to do that but I managed to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting her. There was no outrage on my part. I didn't say anything I just looked at her and spread my arms out...like "what's the deal kid?" She looked at me right in the eyes and......she gave me the finger.....she flipped the bird at me. I said to my mother..."did you see that?" My mother says..."why that little...." At that point I don't know what shocked me more...the non verbal flipping...or the very verbal description of this kid by my mother.
My all knowing mom...wrote it off to bad parenting which I didn't challenge. I didn't want to remind her of all the dumb things I've done in my life and imply that a review on her parenting background might be in order. It wasn't bad parenting...it was bad decision making by her son. And I get it.. this pre-teen drama queen knows what "the bird" is...what it means...and when to use it. But I was shocked that this little road rage rookie chose me to practice on.
Hi Rick - maybe it should be Mr. Hodge, I used to enjoy the Sunday Funnies AND the Theatre of the Mind hour in years past.
The child is just a blankety blank blank piece of work. A lot of 'em are; I can say this as a 40s adult without kids myself. IMO they're conditioned by a non-stop stream of extremely bratty cartoons while as pre-schoolers and a grade school system where calmly sitting straight and paying attention as been replaced with willy nilly group desk arangements without any allowance for ordinary fun during recesses or gym. After this it's poor non-existent parenting.
CQ,good points. I just like to assume the best although I should have known better. I came out of corner store a month or so ago and saw 5 or 6..what looked like 13 and 14 years old girls. The last time I heard that many "F" bombs was at an idustrial league hockey game. And yes.....maybe it should be Mr. Hodge...if I were my father. Rick..Hodgie..and..hey you...are all fine but please no Mr.
Thanks for commenting.
This kind of 'tude from kids these days scares me. Somewhere along the line, they've lost respect for authority, and anyone who tells them "You screwed up". It's usually met with a big backlash from the kids. I believe it happened when we took away the right of the teachers/parents to discipline the kids properly- and the parents actually being afraid of their kids. I remember as a kid being told, "whatever you get at school, you'll get twice here". However back then, the principals were still allowed corporal punishment. And if I were ever being held in jail, you can bet my folks would be in no rush to come and bail me out. They'd let me stew for the night.
The lack of respect for authority will come to bite us huge one day.
Cambo: Thanks for the comments, very insightful. I think I'll do another piece on weather or not this is a generational thing.