It's Super Mega Dad's Dad's birthday today, so Happy  Birthday Dad!  Without you, well, I wouldn't be around! Here's to many, many more birthday's!  You have convinced me over the years that you can fix anything.  Michael thinks I can fix most everything, but anything I can't fix, he knows that Papa would know how, because Papa is the best fix-it guy anywhere.  Daddy uses glue and tape and lots of hand waving to fix things, but Papa's arsenal includes way more then just glue and tape!  If daddy don't fix it, Papa will!

Now on to today's gripe.  I was at a local fast food restraunt today picking up dinner and as I was leaving the place a mother and her two daughters came storming into the place.  The girls immediately started running around and several times ran right in front of me almost tripping me as I was trying to carry multiple bags of food and drinks out the door.  The mother never once said anything to the kids or to me in apology.  She watched the kids running around, but never once even looked at me.  She just let them run around like crazy kids and paid no heed to them or me.

Why do parents not exhibit any sort of control over their kids these days?  And in the case tonight, I would have been completely embarrased if my kids caused someone to almost fall over them, not once but several times because they were running around them.  I would have appolgized to the person, and made my kids do the same thing and they definately would get a "talking to".

When I'm out and about, I'm glad to say that my kids are very well behaved and always stay close to me and definately don't run around.   They are easier holding my hand, or stand very close by quitely.  I'm pretty proud of them.  Amazingly, they are just naturally this way, I've never had to really get them to do this.  Maybe it's just how they are, or maybe it's just how they were raised?

Along the same note, it just seems like kids now have a sense of entitlement and are very selfish.  Is it because the parents are this way too?  Do the parents start out with a sense of entitlement and selfishness and then instill it into their kids?

One of my biggest pet peeves is hearing someone say "That's not fair".  Well, duh, the world is not a fair place at all.  If it were fair, everybody on Earth would be living in a mansion and driving around in SUV's and have all of their needs met, but the world is an unfair place and that's just how things are in the real world.  You have to work for what you want and that's just how it is.

I hope my kids grow up realizing that they need to work for what they want and need and they are not entitled to anything unless they work for it.  Hard work is the solution to the problem and there is no magic wand to give them something for nothing.

I have grown up knowing this at every level of my being and I may not have a lot, but what I do have I appreciate because I've worked very hard to get it.

Sure, my kids have much more then I had growing up, and I was in no means lacking in anything, but I never had a play room full of toys either, but I still feel that my kids appreciate what they have, and I know that Michael thinks what others feel before acting.  Which I can say, with experience, is not generally how kids these days are.  You can see, most of the time, the gears turning in both kids heads playing out scenarios.  Sure, they are still immature, but chances are, if you give them the choice, they will pick the right choice over the easy one.

Is this how cranking old men start?  Am I cursed to be the guy sitting on his porch yelling at those darn kids to get off his lawn?  Hmmm, maybe that's not such a bad thing afterall.  Someones got to keep those darn kids in line!  ;)