Speaking of Kids...

Today, as we do a couple of times a year, our water aerobics group met for lunch at a local restaurant.

We talked about all sorts of things, including a favorite topic...family, especially children and grandchildren.
There is general agreement that child rearing - particularly methods of discipline (or lack of it) - has changed over the years since our own children lived at home.

One woman told a story about her then teenaged daughter buying a car to drive back and forth to work. She'd used her own money to purchase the car, but her dad had sprung for insurance, license, etc. The daughter worked the evening shift, but was cautioned to be back home by curfew. Of course, one night, she didn't get home on time. So her dad said she'd have to park the car in the driveway and take the bus to school each day until further notice. The daughter protested, saying she should be able to drive her car since she had bought it with her own money. Her dad disagreed, saying, "you only own half the car, and my half is staying in the driveway." It was a lesson well learned, and the daughter never missed curfew again.

That story reminded me of when I was raising my own children as a single mother. The youngest child was in charge of mowing the lawn, but he was very lax in the responsibility. I got tired of continually pushing him to the task. So one day after I'd returned, dog-tired as usual, from work, I curled up on the couch and began reading a book. My son looked at me, puzzled. "Aren't you going to cook supper," he asked? "No," I replied. "I've decided if you don't want to mow the lawn, then I don't want to cook supper." He hurried to the door. "I'm going out right now to mow," he said. "So you can start supper, if you want to."