The Most Important Lesson We Can Teach Our Children

How many times do you witness or experience scenarios like this in any given week? You are trying to cross the marked crosswalk area at a busy store with your children and someone flies through the crosswalk nearly squashing yourself and your family. You greet someone on the street and they look at you as if you have snakes crawling out of your eyes and don't respond at all. You walk into a bank and you are ten steps behind someone and instead of holding the door, this person lets it slam right in your face. Someone runs a red light turning left in front of you nearly causing an accident because he obviously has somewhere far more important to be than the value of your life or his. Someone steals the elderly woman's parking spot she'd been patiently waiting on close to the front of a store. You watch as three kids cut in line at the CiCi's buffet, and then watch as their mother or father joins them. You watch in horror as your four-year-old nearly gets flattened by a mutant-sized 11-year-old in a bounce house who really doesn't care if the other children inside are one-third of his size. Then you watch as his father comes in the bounce house and jumps around too. You see a mom in Wal-Mart who doesn't have a care in the world about her cherub running through every aisle knocking things off the shelves. Nevermind that an employee just finished straightening up those items. You are traveling alone with your three-year-old and trying to keep her from running off while you juggle all of your luggage and carseat. You drop a bag in the process and instead of helping you, strangers walk past you like you are a cone in the aisle.You get my drift. These are inconsiderate acts we see every day that indicate how selfish our society has become.

I occasionally get some looks of judgment when my daughter tries to cut in line or attempts to make a mess of everything in sight at Target and I correct her for doing so. Don't judge me. I am doing my best to raise her to be considerate of you and everyone else. There are many lessons I know to be extremely important to pass onto her. But by far, the most important one is to be considerate of others. Being considerate shows love to people and it should be a natural human instinct. But for most it seems like the human instinct is to be first, even if it means risking the safety and sanity of those around them. Sometimes it seems as if people do not even notice anyone else is there. They are raising their kids this way. Even if they tell the kids not to act that way, they act that way themselves and the children grow up emulating the behavior. People complain about those who walk around with a sense of entitlement, but isn't this entitlement in itself? Are you more worthy of being in line before someone else? Are your plans more important than everyone else's? Is it okay for your children to run through Harris Teeter like Hurricane Katrina? Would you allow them to do that in your own home or business? The foundation of growing up in a loving society is to show some basic respect for one another. I am a strict parent and if my child is inconsiderate, I correct it. Pardon me while I raise a member of society who will hold the door for your wheelchair in thirty years. Pardon me while I teach her to love, not bully. Excuse me for being so considerate.