An old and dear friend came into town for his grandfather's funeral, he lives in Florida now, so we had dinner at Shakespeare's, a local pizza place, that is great! the slogan is, "Have you had a piece, lately...." or it was. Nowadays I think it's just Have you had a piece. Anyway.
We sat there, ate pizza, talked about the old days, Mizzou-since he's a grad and a BIG time Mizzou football fan as I am also, the days since we last talked, his family and his daughter, who is a teenager and has a boyfriend. I told him he had done a great job, she is a great girl and not to worry. But of course, he's a dad, and of course HE remembers what he was like at that age. LOL. It is true it seems; a lot of the guys who were....very free with their affections on the ladies, now have daughters. The old, "Wait til you have children of your own" curse.
I am lucky in this sense, he can't be their friend. Because I don't look or act my age (is that good or bad?) the off springs of my friends can talk to me. I told them as long as its not illegal or life-threatening I wouldn't say anything to their parents. Since the majority of them are female, and teenagers, I always give them this advice: whatever they do, they want to do. No one forces them to do anything. Don't drink and drive or get in a vehicle being driven by someone who has been drinking , and whatever you do, be safe in doing it.
Luckily all the daughters have been good, as in, there has been no serious problems come up. I haven't been told anything that I had to tell mom or dad. These parents have raised good kids. But, as my friend pointed out, and as my mother always said, Even when the parent is 90 and the child is 50, they are going to worry. I think the curse is a good one to pass on, as its kinda of a payback, but in a good way. The parent who was a teenager or young adult remembers what they did when they were younger and try to make sure their offspring don't do what they did. They might go so far as to selectively not remember things they did and be hippocritical of others, even though THEY were that way in their youth. They now say, oh that's when I was younger, as if its an excuse that can be used to be forgiven. Sorry, I'm not buying what they are selling.
Richard Pryor or Bill Cosby, some comedian said about parents as they get older, they try and 'buy" their way into Heaven. They don't want to remember they way they were. I haven't been perfect, but what I did has shaped who I am, good or bad. They should remember that also. Not pendulum swing all the way from partier to Born Again. Don't get me wrong, when a person finds the Lord, that's great! But did they find it, or did they realize that they need to build up some Good Karma to balance out everything they had done previously? Maybe I'm over thinking or over analyzing. It just gets me that there are some who don't want to remember the way they were. Or like my friend, who does remember and that's why he worries.
In this day and age, it is extremely difficult to raise kids. And kids are becoming parents at obscene ages: I saw an article about some kids over in the UK, the boy was 13 and his girl fiend at the time was 15, and they had a kid. My God! Then there is the web site I mentioned before "People You Will See In Hell." More child abuse, murder, etc. We should put personal locator beacons in all kids until they are 18 or 21 so we can locate them. If I had a kid, every toy, clothing, etc he would have a gps in it. And if I could, I would implant one in his skin. I would also not do 'Time Outs' as growing up, for me, a spanking, which I had a few, worked. Not a beating, but the time I had the dog run the cows through a barbed wire fence I got spanked, actually I got 'switched' with a switch (small tree branch) and not on the butt, but on the lower legs below my butt. THAT made a believer out of me. I deserved it. I never thought my parents didn't love me. I heard that growing up, said it before going to bed, or when I left the house. My actions on the other hand at times...
In closing, parents have a rough time. They worry. Sometimes they have the right to worry sometimes they don't. But as a parent, that goes with the job, like breathing. I salute those that have kids. And the ones that do, and are turning out well, should get the Congressional Medal of Parenthood. Those good ones are the ones that pass on the good legacy. Not going to waste time, space on words, on the parents that abuse, neglect or kill their own. No amount of psycho bable, post parteum b.s. is ever going to make me believe they were sick or anything else. From what I have seen in animals and in humans, it is hard wired into you to take care of babies, even if they are not your own. So am I saying these people are not human? And that they are animals? Of course not! Even animals take care of babies, so that would make them worse. yeah, but have no idea what category they fall into. Just evil. As I mentioned before; I think anyone ever convicted of crimes like that should be sterilized, neutered or whatever and never allowed to be around kids EVER again. They should have a registry like you have for sex offenders. And like that web site, I do hope they spend their time in Hell.
No comments:
Post a Comment