How true. We were looking forward to spending Easter with
our family. The sun was shining and it looked like it was going to be a great
Easter Sunday...until we opened our garage door to drive away.
There was an empty 4 l oil can on our driveway. Then I
discovered its contents had been spilled all over our driveway. It looked like
recycled oil. When I closed the garage door it was splashed with yellow, so was
one of our dining room windows.
Déjà vu. The Vandals had struck again. They egged our house.
Last year we had our driveway lights smashed and on Mother’s
Day our house was egged. Cleaning dried eggs from bricks is not an easy task
and takes forever.
On one of the sites I belong to somebody wrote about
spanking children. I added my two cents worth to that and wrote this:
Should you spank your children?
This is a complicated and touchy subject. Unfortunately, many people confuse
spanking with hitting. Nobody should ever hit a child! I grew up in a time when
corporal punishment was okay. My dad spanked me when I did something wrong,
with a belt on the butt. He never hit me in anger, never anywhere else but on
the butt. You can’t do much damage there, but it hurts. We were punished in
School and our parents didn’t scream abuse and sued the teacher or the School.
We had respect for our parents, teachers, the police, and especially older
people, which is missing in many of today’s youth. Too many have no respect for
other people’s property or anything else, not even the law. One of the problems
in our society is that punishments for crimes committed are not severe enough.
We have too many bleeding hearts out there. And punishment starts at home. Some
children need to be spanked (not beaten!! I'll say it again), some need to be
talked to, but they need to be punished whenever they do something wrong.
Neglecting and not disciplining children is also a form of abuse, because these
children grow up thinking they can get away with anything without paying the
price. But at the same time children should also be awarded for good behaviour
and for their achievements. I have two sons. I never hit them, but I used a
belt (very gently! How could I ever hurt my child that I love so much?) on our
oldest when he was five. On the butt. And believe me, it hurt me more than him.
That was the only time. Both boys remembered that incident. When they
misbehaved all I had to do was touch my belt and that stopped them in their
tracks. My youngest son gave me the best compliment a father could ever get
when he was a teenager. He said, “You know, Dad, I hope I can be just like you
when I have children some day. Remember the belt? I was always afraid of it
even though you never used it on me.” Both my sons recall that incident fondly
and we always have a good laugh. They love and respect me for the way they were
raised by me and my wife. They both grew up to be wonderful sons with respect
for the law and respect for other people and their property. And that little
incident with the belt didn’t hurt their psyche one bit.
Here is an excerpt of what somebody
else (a woman) wrote about that:
I
actually feel very strongly about the issue of spanking...I actually find
Herbert's fond memories of only having " to touch" his belt to scare
his kids alarming and deeply disturbing...
That woman was disturbed by my
comment. Actually, in a sense I’m not even overly surprised by her reaction,
because it cements what I said. Too many bleeding hearts out there who are so
worried they might do harm to their children’s psyche by not disciplining them
when they should be. People with no children have no idea what they are talking
about. Besides, that woman probably never read my whole comment. In no way does
it say anywhere that my sons were terrified of me. They had respect for me and,
yes...the belt. But they were never scared or terrified. Once they were old
enough to realize I would never use the belt on them to hurt them, any fear
they may have had disappeared, but the idea of the belt had done its job. They
grew up to be men who respected the law, not feared it. They knew they’d be
punished if they did something wrong.
It’s the job of parents to teach
their children right and wrong. To raise children demands a huge portion of
love, and yes, it also means disciplining them when they misbehave. They need
to learn how to discipline their minds and their bodies. It should also be
taught in Schools. If they don’t learn this when they are young, they will grow
into adults who have no respect for people and their property, and the law, and
may think they can do anything they feel like without getting punished. The
signs are all around us that society seems to have failed so many. Criminals
will take no responsibility for their deeds. The latest fad is to plead
insanity. They didn’t know what they were doing. “Bullsh.t!” I say. They knew
what they were doing; they just didn’t give a crap about the people they hurt.
Instead of putting them away for the rest of their lives, murderers may spend a
couple of years in an asylum and be released back into society, apparently
cured. And Big Surprise when they offend again. I have news for those bleeding
hearts: People like that can never be cured, because there is something wrong
with their brains and their way of thinking. Perhaps, if their parents and the
system would have raised them in a more disciplined environment they may not
have turned out that way. Not all but maybe a few.
The young punks who egged our house
obviously have no respect for other people’s property. I reported it to the
RCMP and they filed it away with all the other incidents that happened this
last week. The officer told me that it was Springbreak and children are just
trying to have some fun.
Fun! That’s what they call it? In
fact when the same thing happened to us last year one woman we talked to said,
“Kids will be kids.”
I have one satisfaction. The
fingerprints of the punks who did that to us last year are on file in Ottawa. So if they ever
apply for a job with the government they’ll be out of luck.
I was a kid once. We were no
angels, but we never did stuff like that. And neither did my sons. They knew
that it was wrong to damage other people’s property. Sure, they did stupid
stuff, all kids do, but they knew their limits.
Wow! Talk about venting! But things
like that upset me because I have such a strong feeling of what is wrong and
what is right. I fail to understand people who do stuff like that. Why would
anyone want to hurt others? Be it their property or their feelings. It makes no
sense to me. But then again, I should not be surprised. We live in a violent
society. The whole world is going crazy. Just look at what is happening in the
Middle East or, lately, in North
Korea again.
Insanity rules.
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