"Can I get you something to drink?" I said, to the young mom and son sitting in1E and1F. She turned to her 10 year- old and lifted his headphone enough so that he could hear. "What do you want to drink?" "Coke", he said. His eyes remained glued to his PSP. She turned to me and politely relayed the information. "Tell your f@#$ing little punk as kid to pause his game, take off his Skull Candy headphones, look me in the eye and tell 'me' what he'd like to drink", I thought to myself, "or maybe he shouldn't get anything at all!"
I wanted to blame it on their "Orange County Allstar" appearance. The Mom was in a Juicy Couture sweat suit, the dad in baggy chinos, surf hoodie (which I'm sure was concealing several tribal band tats) and over-sized Globe skate shoes, and the son was a mini-version of dad, minus the tats I'd hoped. Both mom and dad were very polite, made eye contact and seemed appreciative to be sitting in First Class, so appearance had nothing to do with this. It must be that whole "treat your kids like your little buddy" style of parenting... "Enablers", I thought.
Parenting isn't easy, especially when it comes to discipline. Who wants to discipline their kids, I mean come on, what a drag. Nothing fun about discipline, and you certainly can't be cool, at least in your kids eyes, if you set them straight. It's better to get 'em a PSP and keep 'em occupied so that we can do our grown up stuff.
It's really not surprising to me that so many people are outraged when the president uses simple manners and diplomacy when dealing with other countries of the world. I mean, God forbid we show a little respect to our neighbors through good ole fashioned manners, let alone being ever so slightly empathetic to how their cultural lens might affect their own world view.
It now seems to be the exception rather than the rule when not only children, but adults actually say "please" and "thank you" anymore, at least in this country. We have so much to be thankful for, yet we as a country have become jaded, bloated and gluntinous to an extent. We are used to plopping down a credit card and living beyond our means and/or needs. Well, except for a few freegans out there.
Thank You and Happy Holidays...
(wait, I mean Merry Christmas... don't want to offend any real Americans reading this, because of course real Americans celebrate Christmas and not any of those other stupid holidays and we specifically say "Merry Christmas", not "Happy Holidays.") (for those of you who aren't real Americans and celebrate Hannukah and Kwanzaa and other stuff, remember that America is the great melting pot and we celebrate diversity and please ignore what I said in the last parenthetical.)
Jason
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