First, before anyone misconstrues anything I am about to say, I want to make it perfectly clear that I love children. I think that children can be a real joy to be around. I also think children can be cute, precious, and even adorable. After all, I raised two, a son and a daughter, and I now have three grandchildren. On the other hand, I also think most children today are spoiled, rude, inconsiderate, self-centered, loud, and, more often than not, totally obnoxious little human beings. Moreover, if I had my way, today’s parents would be required by law to lock their little brats in the basement or a closet and not let them out until they were, oh, maybe 35 or 40, give or take a year or two.

Why you ask? Well, just look around. Look in stores. Look in malls. Look in churches, on playgrounds, in theaters, or in restaurants, and what do you see? I’ll tell you what you see. You see children pitching tantrums if they don’t get immediate gratification, if Mommy and Daddy don’t give in to their every whim and demand, and if anyone—including Mommy and Daddy—dares to reprimand them for acting like the little selfish narcissistic terrors they are. And whose fault is this? It’s certainly not the children’s. It’s the parent’s fault. After all, parents are the ones who take tiny human beings and transform them into overbearing tyrannical monsters. 

In the good old days, meaning pre-Dr. Spock, parents were not afraid to discipline their children. They believed if one spared the rod then one spoiled the child. Parents also believed children were to be seen, not heard; their children’s wishes did not come before those of adults; and children did not have any say whatsoever in major decisions. But that philosophy of parenting changed. Springing from Dr. Spock’s idea that parents should be flexible instead of adhering to strict guidelines governing everything from discipline to toilet training, these so-called experts on childrearing told parents they should treat their children like miniature adults; apply punishments like time-out and withdrawal of privileges instead of spanking their little darlings; and, worse of all, reason with their children whenever they misbehaved and explain to them exactly what constituted desirable behavior, as well as the consequences of undesirable behavior. 

Yeah, right, as if it’s possible to reason with a toddler, although I have witnessed parents attempting that rather grand and noble feat. For example, not too long ago, I saw a little girl, probably around three, run away from her parents in the park. She was laughing and shrieking, the way only three-year-olds can; and even though her mother, then her father, called for her to come back to where they were and not to run off or, worse, to go darting into the street, the little darling just kept right on going—laughing and shrieking the entire way—and, lo and behold, she then darted into the street. The father (he was not giggling or shrieking) dashed after his daughter, ran into the street, and scooped her up in his arms. Then, what did he do? Did the father reprimand the child? Did he spank her? Did he punish her in any way? No, he sat down on a bench, held her on his knee, and proceeded to explain exactly why she should not run away from her parents and dash into streets. That took approximately ten minutes, after which he set his child on the ground and watched in amazement as she immediately dashed away again—laughing and shrieking—and once again darted into the street, where she stopped, looked back at her father, and proceeded to stick out her tongue, as if saying, “Phooey on you. I like to dart into streets.”

What is my point? Well, although I myself find it a bit foggy, I think my point is that children today don’t listen to their parents because parents today are allowing the lunatics to run the asylum. And it’s time that parents regained control by setting rules, enforcing those rules, and delivering (fair) punishment when those rules are broken. Maybe then other people, namely yours truly, would no longer consider their offspring spoiled, rude, inconsiderate, self-centered, loud, or, more often than not, totally obnoxious little human beings.