Friday 23 July 2010

Taking Responsibility

What have we done? How did it come to this? How have we allowed this to happen? Not sure what I'm talking about. I'm talking about society as a whole. The lack of respect, the attitude and the violence. Why haven't we done something about this before? Are we happy about what society has become? I know I'm not.

When did it become acceptable for teenagers to carry weapons? When did it become acceptable for old people to be beaten up for their pension? When did it become acceptable for us to be afraid of where we walk at night? When did it become acceptable for us to allow kids to get smashed out of their brain's on cheap alcohol? This has crept up on us and we have stood by and let it happen. The kids have control of the streets and we have let them. We are all too blame.

I was brought up to respect my elders. I was brought up to have manners. Why are these issues so sparse now? Its quite simple really, lazy parenting. Its too easy to plonk your kid in front of the telly, or buy them the latest video game and show no interest in them. To allow them to roam the streets at any hour and take no interest in them.

Kids need real role models not footballers or music artists. Look in the mirror I'm talking about you. Parenting isn't an option its a lifestyle choice. You had them now teach them right from wrong. Tell them no, get them to earn rewards. Praise them when they do well, talk to them to find out how their day has been. Spend some time with them.

Being a parent, Ill be generous, isn't about 5 minutes of fun. Its about taking that child in your arms and watching them grow. Its the greatest gift on Earth, so don't abuse it. There are thousands of people out there who cant have kids, who would give anything to have what you have, yet people out there abuse it. They have the child then don't take a blind bit of interest in them.

It saddens me when I see a parent on TV or in the papers mourning their lost child. Dig a little deeper though and in 6 out of 10 cases that child was no angel. I'm not saying for one moment that all kids are bad, Ive met some fantastic kids down the years. What I'm saying is that when your child is left to their own devices and you show no interest in them don't cry tears of pain when they become the next statistic of a knife crime. Where were you? Did you look after them?.

I am well aware of the fact that many single parents have to work and childcare is difficult. I get that. I'm not attacking you. The people I'm attacking are the ones that go out and leave their kids all the time. Or are so drunk they couldn't care less. You reap what you sow in this life. We turn our heads when we see people in trouble. We ignore the child with the bruises or the dirty clothes in the playground. We ignore the child we see clearly underage out on the street at night. We do this not because we are ignorant or don't care, we are worried about what the repercussions of our actions may be.

We hear stories from our parents of what it was like when they were kids, of how people in their street would look out for each other. Where has this gone? Are we so rapped up in our lives that we cant even take a moment to check on our old neighbour to see if they are okay? We have to have advertising now to tell us to do this. Why? We never had that when we were kids. Our parents did it so why did we stop doing it ourselves?

We need to take a step back and look at what is going on around us and decide  if we are prepared to accept this any longer. We need to start changing the way we conduct ourselves and the way we interact with each other. We need to start teaching our children right from wrong. We need to start parenting again the way we were taught and a way that is acceptable to society as a whole.

We must start this now because if we don't the future is not something that we may enjoy. We will have reaped what we sowed and we will be the only ones to blame. Not the politicians, us the parents who gave birth to them and helped to nurture them, then when it got a little difficult we bailed on them. We cut them adrift and told them to get on with it, then cried for them when it went wrong.

Its time to take back our society and say enough is enough. Before its too late.

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