Children in public

[natashaspy]

Is it just me or are more and more children acting out in public? It seems every time you go into a Wal-Mart, all you hear are screaming children, seeing them running around...while the parents just act like nothing is going on and ignoring it.  I know that its difficult to discipline kids these days without hearing child abuse being screamed left and right, but I just don't get it.  My son is 17, polite to everyone...opens doors for women, says yes ma'am, no sir.  If he sees an older person in a store having trouble, he voluntarily goes and asks if they want help with their bags.  He's done that more times than I can count.  He doesn't talk back, and is a good student in school.  All this being said, not ONCE have I ever had to spank him.  His dad and I just made it known as he was growing up what he could and could not get away with.  It just really saddens me seeing parents now letting kids run wild and not putting the time and energy into them to teach them the proper way to act in public. Am I the only one that feels that way?

[sgluckadoo]

It isn't just you. Not all parents are to blame, but essentially parenting is a verb. It requires action. Parents who are too strict and do not communicated or show warmth have bad children. Parents who are warm but have no rules at all and let the children raise themselves will have bad children. The key elements are communication, warmth, involvement, demands, and level of strictness (punishment). Children need to know the rules, and what the consequences are for breaking them. PArenting is the hardest job there is and many treat it like it isn't.

[Nancy5]

You are 100% right.  I see kids running and screaming in both stores and restaurants.  Most of the time the parents could care less.  I raised 2 girls who are now young adults.  They say please and thank you, and they never acted up like that.  Their dad and I never hit, but they too knew what was expected and what was not tolerated.

[swkstudent]

YES a lot of these kids are disciplined at all. They talk to adults any kind of what they want in front of their parents and they're parents don't correct them.

All my mother had to do was give me "that look" and I stopped whatever I was doing. My parents and grandparents did NOT play.

[tea4me]

I see kids running amok as well, and my own children do it from time to time but not as badly as I've seen others do it.  My kids have ADHD and meds don't cure everything...

[mrisha]

Children have always acted out in public.  They've just gotten worse because of parents refusal to put a stop to all the screaming they do.  It's not expressing themselves, it's just playing annoying.  Possibly if the parent disciplined their kids as they should be, the kid would not embarrass them out in public.

[potluck6]

Was in a store and these 2 kids age 7-8 were running all around the mom just seemed to be ignoring them.i think that made them act worse.

[raven1114]

Well you said it yourself, part of the problem is parents are so worried now a days about someone calling child abuse on them and having cps up in their business if they so much as look cross-eyed at their child. I once had someone try and say sending a child to their room was cruel . People have also taught kids that they have the same rights as adults and they don't. The right to basic things like food, shelter, not to be harmed sure, but kids now a days think they have rights to say what does and does not happen in things they have no knowledge on or lack the skills to understand.

[melissajh44]

I have to agree. I don't know what is causing this. I guess parents are just too lax nowadays.

[ljrjess69]

yep I think more kids are acting up these days..parents fault 

[lywb2168]

You know I agree with you all, the times were kids where quite, respectful and grateful are gone, parents have lost sometimes on the shuffle of times.  I have 2 girls 19 almost 20 and a 14 almost 15, who seems to be more like 30, but they know how far they can go.  When they were younger and sassy me or were too disrespectful and we were in public, all I did was throw them a look that spoke more that words and they would behave.  I never lifted a finger to hit them and I never used a belt, my husband would only pretend to go get the belt and they would run and behave, never stroke them with anything more that a towel if anything and they are very well behave Thank God. I would punish them with bad behavior by grounding them for as long as the grievance required, took their cell phones and computers away.  And they knew that all of those are PRIVILEGES not a right, but kids these days think that everything they have is the right of the parent and that is most of the problems with these kids.

A few years back I was at Walmart and there was a family of mom,dad and a little girl of about 3 or 4 years, and I heard the girl arguing with the dad about something and when he said NO she called him an as....e and an stupid something else.  The dad just laugh and told the girl to stop being a brat.  If my girls would have acted that way, they would have lost their teeth in the bathroom or the car,I was completely appealed by the parents attitude towards the girl's behavior.

Parents need to learn how to communicate and raise their children.  Respect is something that has been lost in this technology age.

[kapeh12]

I think another contributing factor is the general attitude of our society as well.  There is a general lack of personal responsibility in our culture - now it's always someone else's fault when things go wrong.  It's bad schools, bad neighbors, some new "rage" syndrome, bad chicken they ate at dinner...never pointing the finger at themselves.

If parents adhere to this philosophy, the children will learn this as well.  It wasn't the child's fault they ran wild, it was their sibling, the toy on the shelf, the stranger across the aisle...

Perhaps if people stopped making excuses for behavior and took responsibility for their own bad behavior saying "yep, I screwed up" and accepted the consequences, then children will have better examples of what will happen if they break the rules (assuming there are any in place to break).

[dkanofsky]

Nope it is not just you.  More and more children are acting out in public because more and more" parents" could care less how their children behave.

[msmoneybags48]

It is not just you.  Children are acting out because laws have changed.  There was a time when it was okay to discipline your child(ren) in public; now, if you do, it is deemed child abuse.  My daughter told me, when she was a kid,  she would call the police on me and I told her she didn't have to worry about it because, when she did that, she was going to make a mistake.  Yesterday, my daughter, now 27,  called me yesterday and got on me for not calling her.  I told her I thought maybe she was with her husband and I would give her some space.  She reminded me that, whether he was there or not, I am her mother.  

[gaylasue]

I couldn't agree more!  Most children now days are not raised in a disciplined atmosphere.  Most parents would rather let the TV, computer or video games be their child's babysitter and entertainer.  Kids are not taught manners and morals like we were taught growing up.  They definitely have not been taught to respect their elders.