Welcome to Gaia! ::

What I've found now a days is that kids don't understand that not everything in life is FREE. Seriously... I took my daughter to a MAC store to have her makeup done for her Junior Prom. When she was done the makeup artist asked her what items she would like to purchase. My daughter said "none"... I looked at her and said "we'll take the lipstick, the mascara, and the foundation looked nice." My daughter turned to me and said "Mom, we don't have to buy anything. It's her job." I wanted to smack my child upside her head but refrained and said "well I love how the makeup looks on you and you might need to touch up tonight." The makeup cost me a pretty penny, about $60 dollars and I gave the makeup artist a $20 tip... which my daughter bark at me "why". When we got in the car I told my daughter that when you schedule an appointment to get your makeup done by a profession, even if it's at a store, you still need to pay them and give them a commission on the sale. Nothing is ever FREE and gratitude goes a long way.

I remember when you were taught 'respect' and a thing called "manners"....excuse me not just for bodily functions, but also for walking between two or more people having a conversation-or in front of someone, or if you needed to get by someone-, please, thank you and may I be excused were standard and appreciated everytime I stayed the night at my friends' houses, also my mom brags because she had six of us and could take us into a store of glassware and never worry about something getting broken because we knew better than to touch anything, yes it came from getting spanked, but nothing EVER got broken in a store or when visiting someone so my parents never had to replace something-especially hard to do if it is a keepsake, NO you don't necessarily HAVE to put things up, kids need to know and be taught if it isn't yours leave it alone and keeping things out of reach is not teaching them it just means they can't 'reach' it, my kids learned just like I was taught and they are teaching their kids and my grandkids are getting better now about what they can play with and what they cannot.

I had 4 daughters. They are all here on Gaia. They learned at an early age what "NO!" means and yes, they were spanked when they did something bad. They all knew I hated to spank them, but that I would if necessary. They knew when we went to the store, that they could ask for something, but that didn't mean they would get it. I was more lenient with them than my parents were, but...they knew when they got to the line not to cross it. I believe my older three have more respect for me than the youngest does. She actually did tell me that she would call human service on me if I spanked her. Yes, she got spanked and then I called them myself. They told me as long as I spanked her on her bottom and didn't leave marks....there was nothing they could do. I felt so vindicated! I remember when I got spanked when I was young. The thought of complaining to someone about it never crossed my mind. Not even when my dad used his fists on my face. What I thought then was, no one is to know. I will lie if necessary so that my family won't get broken up and dad go to jail. Things sure are different now. Everyone airs their dirty linen out in public and now kids are taught that it is ok to lie, as long as they can get someone to believe it, then it is true.

I also remember my friend's big brother and his friend not letting us girls play in their tree house with them because he claimed "There are no 'girls' in Star-Trek", I answered smugly "Oh yes there is, what about Lt. Ulhura (sp?) and the nurse among others?", needless to say he grudgingly recanted and let us play-for awhile....
Those were the days when we played outside and used our imagination and created forts, tree houses, club houses etc; we had slumber parties and slept outside in our sleeping bags; we went to the drive-in and laid on top of the car to watch....has good memories flashing back...; my brothers played with Tonka trucks and G.I. Joe's and I had Breyer horses and Barbie; practically every yard had a swingset-the old metal ones that had the two-seater on one end, a slide on the other and maybe two swings or one in the middle...; we slept with the door open and the screen unlocked on summer nights; women had tupperware parties and artex parties-remember Artex paints? Those were so fun...

Well, kids have no idea about responsibility because they aren't taught any responsibility anymore. Mine have chores and a curfew. My daughter ran her cell phone way up and now any money she makes from babysitting, etc. goes to pay us back for the bill. That's what everyone should do with their kid, teach them responsibility.

WORD!!

That's okay... popcorn don't like you either razz