Again, it's been too long since I blogged. One of the curses of being involved in a myriad of activities and groups and functions, etc., etc.
In the past 7 months I've started a new band (Silver & Spice), my wife and I hosted a WebTV show for a couple of months (The Voorheesian Empire), until that simply got to be too time-consuming, and I've been involved in the Central Committee for the Polk County Republican Party.
In my "spare time", I've still managed to continue to teach Taekwondo, play in the band at church, enjoy our church small group, celebrate my grandson's 1st birthday, and spend time (not nearly enough) with my wife.
So, what is today's topic? Parenting.
I was at the Ankeny Summerfest last evening (working at the Ankeny GOP booth). There were a handful of young teenage boys that had somehow pilfered a box of replacement light bulbs from the carnival's ferris wheel. They were walking along the sidewalk and occasionally throwing them at people's feet, where they would "pop" and scare folks.
The youths were stopped and subjected to the auspices of Ankeny PD. Ankeny's finest had these children go back and pick up the broken glass by hand, then come back and sweep up any remaining glass. The entire length of the concourse. Good for them!
When one of the kids was asked, "Where are your parents?", they informed that they had been "dropped off" by a parent.
In the defense of at least one of the parents, I witnessed one of the boys walking away with apparently his father, and Dad was giving the boy an earful.
A couple of us were talking...if we had done something like that when growing up...not only would we have been cleaning the entire grounds for the entire weekend, our lives would have been a living hell at home for quite some time.
Glad to see that at least one of those kids' parents still remember how to "parent", rather than to be their kid's "friend". It's called "tough love" for a reason. Children need their parents to BE their parents, not their friends. They have enough kids their own age to be friends with.
My two cents worth today.
In the past 7 months I've started a new band (Silver & Spice), my wife and I hosted a WebTV show for a couple of months (The Voorheesian Empire), until that simply got to be too time-consuming, and I've been involved in the Central Committee for the Polk County Republican Party.
In my "spare time", I've still managed to continue to teach Taekwondo, play in the band at church, enjoy our church small group, celebrate my grandson's 1st birthday, and spend time (not nearly enough) with my wife.
So, what is today's topic? Parenting.
I was at the Ankeny Summerfest last evening (working at the Ankeny GOP booth). There were a handful of young teenage boys that had somehow pilfered a box of replacement light bulbs from the carnival's ferris wheel. They were walking along the sidewalk and occasionally throwing them at people's feet, where they would "pop" and scare folks.
The youths were stopped and subjected to the auspices of Ankeny PD. Ankeny's finest had these children go back and pick up the broken glass by hand, then come back and sweep up any remaining glass. The entire length of the concourse. Good for them!
When one of the kids was asked, "Where are your parents?", they informed that they had been "dropped off" by a parent.
In the defense of at least one of the parents, I witnessed one of the boys walking away with apparently his father, and Dad was giving the boy an earful.
A couple of us were talking...if we had done something like that when growing up...not only would we have been cleaning the entire grounds for the entire weekend, our lives would have been a living hell at home for quite some time.
Glad to see that at least one of those kids' parents still remember how to "parent", rather than to be their kid's "friend". It's called "tough love" for a reason. Children need their parents to BE their parents, not their friends. They have enough kids their own age to be friends with.
My two cents worth today.
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