Sickbed Reality Check

Being sick is highly under rated.  It can have its positive side.  I came to this conclusion Sunday afternoon trying to not get angry about being in bed for 2-1/2 days with what was either a bad cold or slight flu maybe?  Who knows.  What I do know is that while I stuffily coughed my way in and out of consciousness, I actually had time to be alone with my thoughts.  See, I told you sickness occasionally has an upside.  The other positives of being out of circulation?  When you are sick, no one expects much of you, but I think that is mostly due to family members not wanting you to cough on them.  Oh yes…and when you have an angel of a husband like mine, you get homemade chicken soup.

Mind you maybe it was just the cold medicine talking, but one of the sick bed musings I had was about common sense or more specifically the lack thereof in our world.  Is EVERYONE on cold medicine?  Why does it seem that logical thought is not so common anymore?  Common sense is quickly becoming extinct and should be renamed “only occasionally used when it is politically correct and we are not offending anyone” sense.

As a mother this really concerns me.  Our children are being raised in a world where there just does not seem to be any cut and dry consequences anymore.  For example, old fashioned common sense dictates that if you don’t do your homework, you fail.  Politically correct 2012 sense dictates that if you don’t do your homework, well, we are sure you had your reasons.  We certainly do not want you to feel bad about yourself and get left behind your peers.  Because of that, and more importantly, because we as a school district don’t want to lose funding and look bad on the year-end pass/fail rates, we are going to let you make up all your missed credits in a few flex days at the end of the school year.  Yay – now we all win!  What the…huh?!

Why do we all jump down the throat of the father in North Carolina who after having enough of his spoiled daughter’s cursing rants against him on Facebook (typed no less on a laptop he provided), use spoiled daughter’s offending laptop for lesson teaching target practice?  Some in our liberally-minded society say he was being extreme in his response and media “experts” surmised his actions as bad parenting.  When did it become bad parenting to set limits and boundaries and teach our children there are *g.a.s.p* consequences to their actions?  I for one said, “Go Dad!”

Guess what kids?  My job as a parent is not to put money into your sweaty little outstretched hand.  My job is instead to place a pen in that hand.  A pen that you will use to neatly complete that job application.  The application that will get you that non-glamorous job where you will have a boss who will not pay you if you do not show up and do the work.  A job where you learn what it feels like to earn your own money and be your own person.  My role is to teach you that in spite of Facebook, reality television, and a society that is afraid to hurt your feelings, you are not a star and that you are no more entitled than that starving child living in some third world country.  Because I love you, I am going to teach you that if you are not responsible you will not be rewarded, but rather reprimanded.  My job means that sometimes you will be told no and that most of the time you will not like me.  But that’s OK; I don't mind.  It just means I’m doing a good job and that someday when I am not around, you will be alright.  And after all, isn't that what being a parent is really all about?