Okay, get ready.  I’m climbing up there.  This is your warning.. I’m almost there.

Yep, here I am.  On. My. Soapbox.

Like to hear it?  Here it go.

There’s a certain misunderstanding among adults today.  Not all adults.  Just some.  I’ve watched it on both a personal and an objective level for some time now, and although it ALWAYS hits a nerve, it’s just been all up in my bidness this past week or so.  Wanna know the magic secret that these parents don’t know?  “YOU ARE THE ADULT.”

It’s become my new mantra.  Because it flows really well with other mantras I have.  Watch: “YOU ARE THE ADULT; DO YOUR JOB.”  See?  And again, “YOU ARE THE ADULT.  I’m just sayin’..”

What I didn’t confess to you is that, the night after my extensive rant about “the dancers”, two of “the dancers” mouthed off to Bryan.  He had finally had enough.  So he went to their director and demanded an apology from the girls.  And until he received it, he was holding the show.

Her response?  “I can’t make them apologize.”

Whoa.  WHOA.  Honey, I hate to stress you out over this, because I know how terrible this must sound.. but YOU ARE THE ADULT.  IT’S YOUR JOB to not only make sure your children are good at what they do, but to teach them life lessons at the same time.  DO YOUR JOB.

Then, again, last night on SuperNanny, a family with three boys who were constantly throwing temper tantrums.  The mother just allowed it to happen, while the father usually left the room.  And my favorite?  Although they fell asleep in the same bed, the husband usually ended up sleeping on the couch because the three year old would “kick him out” of their bed. 

Even Jo was amazed.  She cut her eyes several times at the camera, none of which was more obvious than when the three year old smacked his mother right between the eyes.  Jo asked her, “Why do you allow this to happen?  Why do you let him do this?  Why are you not disciplining him?”

Her response?  “It just hurts my feelings when he does that to me.”

Honey.. he’s three.  He only knows right from wrong when you tell him.  And oh, by the way.. YOU’RE THE ADULT.  When he comes to your bed in the night, TAKE HIS ASS BACK TO HIS BED.  When he hits you, YOU TELL HIM “NO!” AND THEN DISCIPLINE HIM.

And, perhaps, the kicker.. many of you may have seen Lee on the news this past week, when several hundred students walked out in protest of a transfered security guard.  All other things aside.. I don’t agree with the “cause”, nor do I agree with how it was handled on the part of the students.. when they came back into the school (not because of defeat, but because it was raining and they were only fairweather protestors), the administration decided to not write up the students for anything.  Not for skipping class, not for disruption.. and why not?

“We want everything to return to normal as quickly as possible.”

So.. way to go there.  You’ve shown the students that they run your school.  That when they decide to come together en masse, they may do whatever they choose to and not receive any sort of consequence for it.  I have nothing against allowing them to “exercise their rights of free speech”, but sometimes rights come with consequences.  And if you believe in your “cause” strongly enough, the consequences shouldn’t bother you.

I just don’t get it.  I see parents do it.  I see teachers do it.  And I’ve struggled to remember the climate of my upbringing.. did I have that sense of entitlement?  Did I honestly believe that I was allowed to act in whatever manner, without any direct affect?

Then I remembered a conversation I had with Bryan and Delle.  Bryan, when talking to the dance director, recalled her saying, “I want to do more modern stuff, more lyric stuff, but the kids just won’t do it.”

I sat there, amazed.  “I can’t even believe that,” I said.  “Because I remember dodging a stapler.  There was a stapler.  Thrown at my head.”

Delle laughed.  “That was probably easier to dodge than that music stand I had tossed my way.”