Parenting Is A Lost Art

Reed had his big end of semester show at the Little Gym this morning. He did great and I was so proud of the way he waited his turn, was patient and was nice to his friends. I am amazed how many parents, not only at the Little Gym but everywhere these days, don't pay attention to their kids or make sure they are nice and polite. At the end of the hour, each child was supposed to be invited up to receive their ribbon and then their parents could take a photo. Well, probably over half the kids mobbed the stand and started crawling up on it. The teacher tried to hand them out to each child and have them stand on the blocks but there were kids everywhere, right in the middle of the photos and their parents were doing NOTHING! It was driving me crazy. Some of the parents were not even watching, some of them saw but didn't seem to think that it was completely rude for their child to be right in the way when another child was receiving their special ribbon and a few parents called from across the room "so and so" try to stay out of the way. Come on parents! Be responsible for your small kids and teach them respect, patience and responsibility. This requires you to get up off your rear end and do some parenting! Reed was being so sweet, he was sitting next to me and he kept asking "Is it my turn? Can I go now? When do I get my ribbon? I be patient mom, I wait. I be nice to my friends." I kept telling him to wait his turn and that his teacher would call his name. He did great and sat there, on his little bottom, until the teacher called his name.