Why not? You need one to drive, don’t you?

My dad has always said that parenting is the oldest profession and one there is no school for. Just about anyone can have a child, though not everyone should. Not to mention that a license is required for just about everything but not for parenting. It’s not difficult to determine which people should not have children, at least not in their care. But I won’t go into that today.

What I want to talk about is the utter lack of preparation there is for people who are going to be parents, which is potentially, everyone. There are no real parenting classes to speak of in school, though I was required to take geometry, which I have not since used, though a practical parenting class would have been extremely useful. Wood shop was. I can tell you knowing what tools to use in what situation and being able to call them by name has come in way more handy than knowing what an isosceles trapezoid looks like. I personally think there should be a license to parent. Everyone should have to take a class pass a test and get the license BEFORE they have kids. Seriously. And if perchance someone inadvertantly has a child BEFORE the acquire a license, then they should be fined until they can pass the test and get the license.

This is NOT a democracy!

I learned how to parent by watching my mom and dad, who were both very strict. Dad used to say “This is not a democracy, it is a benevolent dictatorship!” What we learned is that what mom and dad say goes. You don’t pit one parent against the other. You don’t touch anything in any store (or anyone else’s house for that matter.) We didn’t have to like mom or dad, but we had to respect them and their authority. AND they were THE authority. We never got paid for chores or grades, both were just expected, but if ever we wanted to go skating or the movies, the money was there as long as our chores were done and our grades were up. We had responsibilities and we were held responsible. We also had a lot of fun. We grew up surrounded by cousins and a strong sense of family. Today’s kids know none of those things. And I’m not even just referring to the teenagers. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve witnessed a child (say 3-5) yelling…Yelling!!!…at his or her parent, while the parent either ignored the behavior or shrugged her shoulders at it. Yelling?!? We weren’t ALLOWED to yell. period. You just didn’t do it. And not because anything would happen. Mom and dad never really used corporeal punishment. They didn’t have to. There are thousands of books on parenting today, and daytime television has a new and improved way to parent almost daily. You’d think with all of this advice out there that we’d be cranking out some of the best behaved kids in a few centuries…but we’re not. Sometimes I feel like a crochety old woman. I hate places like the mall. I took my kids school shopping at the beginning of the school year. As we were walking, a young man, not watching where he was going, practically crashed into me. I had to stop so abruptly that had I been in my car, the air-bags might have deployed! I very politely and without even the tiniest hint of sarcasm, (okay, maybe there was a little sarcasm) said “Oh, excuse me!” Not only did he not excuse himself, but he had the audacity to look at me as though I had wronged him, when he was the one not watching where he was going! And this is the norm at the mall! What’s worse, is you can’t even comepletly blame the kid for his rudeness because I don’t think he was even aware of just how rude he was being. Good manners are learned!

Three blind mice…

Unfortunately, the generation raising today’s kids, the “me generation” is like the blind leading the blind. Don’t ya think? Which is why I still say, parenting classes should be implemented. Forget geometry, that should be an elective for those people who might actually want to be in a profession that utilizes that information…chemistry…chemistry should be an elective too….

And that’s all for now!

Ciao! Hasta la pasta baby!