**This isnâ????t necessarily in response to teaching VBS or about parishioners or anything like that â???? itâ????s been brought on by general observations and conversations that Iâ????ve had with people.**

Itâ????s been really bugging me lately that parents arenâ????t… well… parenting anymore and that itâ????s become all about life being convenient for them instead of them training and teaching their kids how to behave. You have the Gary Ezzo fans who talk about putting your baby on a schedule that works for you instead of nursing by demand, the parents who refuse to teach their kids that not everything they do is cute, the parents who leave their kids in daycare so that they can go out and pretend not to have kids (not anyone here in Montana or anyone I know online or in real life), and the parents who just tell their kids that “Mommy is ignoring [them]” when they’re out in public and misbehaving.

Emeth blogged a couple days ago about mothers who tell her to let her daughter cry herselfÂ? to sleep or to put her on a feeding/sleeping schedule.Â? I can’t help but think that the advice is to make it more convenient for Emeth which she feels is pretty cruel toward her daughter.Â? I think it’s pretty cruel too — the methods are supposed to make your baby more independent but seriously… this is a baby, not a toddler.Â? It’s not like babies can “use their words” to tell their mothers what they need.Â? The sleeping/eating schedule also sounds like it would disrupt the bond between mother and child.

My second gripe: parents who fail to teach their child that not everything they say or do is cute.Â? It’s a pain for those of us who have to teach them in Sunday school or when they get to school because they tend to be the ones who require the most time of the teacher and who fail to take the feelings of others into account.Â? There are seriously kids that I’ve taught that I would duct-tape to the wall if I could because they cannot listen, cannot sit still (not talking about kids with ADD or ADHD here), and think that they have to have the last word on everything.Â? Grandparents can be in the same boat, especially when their grandkid is misbehaving and they just stand there beaming like their grandkid has done something worth praise.Â? Maybe both the parents and grandparents are just lazy.

Third gripe: parents who put their kids in daycare and then go out to be socialites.Â? Sorry… those people don’t deserve to breed.Â? (I’m not begrudging the parents who get a babysitter from time to time to have a nice quiet dinner or the mom who has someone babysit once a week so she can go do errands.Â? I’m talking about the ones who drop their kids at daycare everyday even though they don’t work.)Â? If you’re going to have a baby, you need to step up and not do it for looks.Â? Parent your child.Â? Care for your child.Â? Don’t drop them in daycare all day so you can go shopping and have coffee at $tarbuck$ with your friends.Â? It’s a waste of money and a waste of your kid’s childhood when they should be looking back on the time they were spending with Mommy and Daddy.

Last gripe: This is related to the first one but… what is with the braindead parents who just refuse to discipline their kids???Â? I swear… I am going to call Child Services on the next mom who lets her brats run wild around the grocery store or coffeeshop and tells them “OK… Mommy is ignoring you now.”Â? These idiots also don’t deserve to breed.Â? If you’re going to have kids, discipline them.Â? I’m not saying that you have to spank them but you need to at least set boundaries!!!Â? TELL THEM that they need to stay with you and stop running around and knocking things off of shelves.Â? PUT THEM IN TIME OUT when you get home if they act out in public.Â? REMOVE THEM from the store if they keep acting up.Â? I heard a mom talking at a church gathering a few years ago about how she’ll just leave her cart in the store and ask the manager to keep it for her and then escort her kids out of the store if they’re misbehaving and throwing tantrums.Â? It sounded pretty gutsy as I know that she’s a working mom and her time for errands is pretty limited.Â? However… it sends a message to the kids that if they can’t behave in public, they aren’t going to be allowed to go do errands with their mom.Â? (I happen to know that it took three times of this happening before the kids started behaving.)

And for the love of Cora: stop feeding your kids McDonalds every freaking night and actually cook dinner.Â? There are so many things that are nutritious that you can make from scratch in under 15 minutes that are so much better than the hormones and sugar and fat you find in fast food.Â? And if you’re going to feed your kids crap, stop whining about their behavior.Â? If you give your kids soda and sugary snacks, they’re going to be running around like little buzzed ferrets.

/end rant