I’ve gotten to be an old lady lately and I can’t or I won’t tolerate bad manners
By Kathryn Ross, pictured is David Hogg survivor of a 2018 school shooting
I do not belief that children should be seen and not heard. but sometimes I wonder? Some kids have some very good ideas and have a lot to offer.
Remember David Hogg the outspoken teenager who survived the school shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Fla. in 2018. He helped organize, lead and spoke at the March For Our Lives protest in Washington and organized Never Again MSD. Today. After graduating from Harvard, he still advocates for responsible gun control. Now 25, he appeared on Salem Radio Network with host Scott Jennings Tuesday, holding Democratic leadership responsible for the continuation of the government shutdown. He is outspoken and responsible and a member of the Democratic National Party Leadership. I’ll be interested to see if he runs for office now that he is eligible.
The other day I encountered kids who are not quite as responsible, yet. I was in the grocery store where a couple of teenage boys were messing around, as teenagers are prone to do. They were misplacing items on the shelves and generally just making a lot of juvenile noise and disruption causing one to look at them. I guess that was their goal because I did.
I picked up the item I was after and put it in my cart and started to roll away when one of the boys crossed in front of me, bumping me and causing me to abruptly stop my cart or hit him. He didn’t say excuse me or anything. So, as I do when people are rude and don’t excuse or pardon themselves, I sarcastically apologize for being in his way.
I’ve gotten to be an old lady lately and I can’t or I won’t tolerate bad manners. In this world today, there are a lot of bad manners going around. Unfortunately, it is a sign of the times.
I know there are good kids out there and I know kids horse around, but going to the grocery store these days is hard enough as you question if you need an item which costs significantly more than it did the last time you bought it, without having to cope with impolite teens at the same time.
My withering stare and caustic comment seemed to antagonize the little brats because when I next noticed them, they were following me around the store. I was checking out paper plates. I used them in my microwave. They were right behind me when one started asking where the paper plates were. Finally, he asked me and I replied, “open your eyes and you’ll see them right in front of you.” He stated, “I don’t see very well, ma’am, could you please tell me where they are,”?
I was rolling away by this time and recalled he’d seemed perfectly well-sighted when he was misplacing cans. I turned around and said, “Why don’t you stop fooling around? This is a grocery store, not a playground.”
I rolled over to the dairy section and picked up some butter and went to the checkout.
While I was checking out and paying my bill I kept thinking about the two boys and the other shoppers in the store. Many were older. Finally, I decided to rat them out because how are they going to learn, if no one challenges their behavior? I told the cashier there were a couple of young boys harassing customers and moving cans and other things. When she said she knew, I responded, “Then why don’t you do something about it?”
That must have been an enlightening idea for her because she instantly said she’d report it and walked off to do just that, I guess. Maybe she was just trying to placate me. I don’t know, but she disappeared.
What I do know is that adults should be teaching their kids to show some respect for others. Is that an outdated concept? Am I just being a grouchy old lady who begrudges kids having fun? Or do I no longer live in a world that has some manners and shows some respect for others? I hope not, but I fear things are changing and our youth are at the bottom of a trickle-down ideology that is self-centered and that has little or no regard for others.
What do they say in the old song “You’ve got to be carefully taught” The reverse of the idea is also true.
