Back in my day...

Jean1 here....with something to say

Back in my day (late 70's early 80's) children were taught certain rules of courtesy for everyday life. Ok, not all kids....But we were! Both Jean1 and Jean2. Back in my day were taught that it was rude to point and stare at people, we kept our comments to ourselves and WE LIKED IT...DAGNABIT, WE LOVED IT. Back in my day we were taught that when a person talked to you, you looked at them and answered, whether they had a wart on their nose or not..And WE LIKED IT, DAGNABIT, WE LOVED IT. Back in my day we were taught that it was rude to walk through another person's yard...That's what sidewalks were for even when the sidewalk was cracked and tilted to the side in a dangerous angle (the one right up from my parents house), you just balanced and hoped you didn't hit the biggest crack with your bike tire AND WE LIKED IT, DAGNABIT, WE LOVED IT!
Which brings me to my topic.
Yesterday, when pulling into my yard, the land that I make payments on, the plot on which my house sits, the lawn that I (actually our lawn guy) mows, the driveway on which I park my cars....(ok, you get the point) I had to stop and wait for a 15 year old neighbor girl finish walking ACROSS my driveway so I could pull in and park. Now, it's not like she was there to visit me, nor to drop something off, or was even retrieving a wayward ball...She was lazily walking through just to cut off the 10 extra steps it would have taken to walk on the sidewalk. And to top it off, when she saw me sitting there in my vehicle, she strolled past my auto window...Smirked and WAVED and kept on walking. COME ON!!! My children were stunned. The oldest bloglet said to me "why's she in our yard?" and my male bloglet said "how rude!" and I said "that's why I tell you to use the sidewalks....You should always ask permission to be in someone else's yard." (Of course, it was a good learning moment for my kids...But hey, what about little miss rudeness?) Same girl, along with friends, sat last night on our corner IN our yard with bottle rockets smacking the lit ones into the road as cars approached. Once, again...There was no sense of pondering if "this might be wrong" or "hmmmm, wonder if this is a wise thing to do"....NOPE. While discussing this very issue with DH he says with great kindness "it's easy to see that these parents of these wandering kids do not pay attention to them. Why else would they be allowed to lay in the streets at 10:30 at night (yes...They have done this a number of times...I almost ran over one of them one night)? Good point.
So, the lesson here is this: Talk to your kids, they need it, or they will wander around doing REALLY DUMB THINGS. Enough said!