Rudeness: A Warning To Parents

Okay, let's get serious for a second.

Sorry, kiddies, but there's no excuse for being rude. Mommy and Daddy, there's no excuse for your kids being rude either. And there's no excuse for DEFENDING your child's rudeness.

So, we're in the grocery store and these two prepubescent girls are staring at my wife and my brother-in-law. So, we call them out for staring (tell me... at what point in time did staring become acceptable?). We move on to another aisle. Yet another couple of young girls. One of them silently makes a motion about my brother-in-law's weight. We almost let that one slide until one of the adult women with the group comments that my brother-in-law was crazy and justified the girl's motion.

Well, that was enough of that -- first my wife and then I tore in the adult telling her that what the girl did was rude. And yet the adult attempted to defend the girl's actions.

How the hell can you defend rudeness? I can understand a young girl making a rude remark if they've not been taught the difference between right and wrong. But defending it? That's unforgiveable. The adult should have told the young girl that what she did was wrong. She didn't need to scold the girl or hit her or enforce right and wrong though a negative method. But she DID need to let the girl know that what she did was not nice. But instead she defended the girl and even went so far as to reinforce the girl's rudeness by being rude also.

If you as a "responsible" adult cannot take the time to help a child learn the difference between right and wrong, then you should not have children yourself and you should not be allowed to be around children. In my opinion, that's child abuse. You're setting that child up to believe that what they did was right and that's going to set the child up for a huge fall later in life when that action explodes in their face.

People, it's time to get back to the basics of what's right and what's wrong. I don't care HOW busy your life is or HOW stressed your life is or HOW bad your life is -- there's no excuse for being rude. Living by what's right and what's wrong should be ingrained in your very soul. It's not something you think about. And if you're the one of the receiving end of rudeness, don't be afraid to stand up for what's right and what's wrong and the let the person know that what they did was unacceptable. The only exception is if the person being rude is obvious unbalanced or potentially violent.