Who Are The Parents?

I have had two recent experiences lately that have made me wonder, why don't parents act like the parents?

In August, I was flying home from Maine and across the isle from me was a mom, dad, and a toddler. As we were getting ready to take off the mom was trying to get her toddler into a seat belt. Every time she tried he would scream. Finally the flight attendant came around and the mom asked her to tell her son he had to put on his seat belt. I was puzzled and wondering why the parent had to resort to this. Isn't she the parent? I truly believe the child understands what is going on. When a parent fails to show his/her parental skills (for lack of a better word)...the child will know and will take advantage of this.

Today, a similar situation happened. We were at the library for story time and a little boy wouldn't stay in his seat. He would walk around to all the other kids. The mother asked the librarian to tell him to sit down. Now she did a great job and got the toddler to sit down for a while, but why was it her responsibility? I don't understand.

As parents we have a job. Our job is to love our children, raise them in a loving and caring environment, teach them right from wrong, raise them with great values, provide a home for them, teach them about respecting others and treating everyone with kindness,(plus many more jobs) and most importantly...be their parents. Our children shouldn't be in charge and neither should another adult. When I told my husband this story he was flabbergasted as well. We were both raised to behave in public and be respectful to everyone around us. We don't expect anything less from our daughter. If I was the parent in the plane...I would have said to my daughter, "You can sit down and put your seat belt on, or I will sit you down and put the seat belt on." I can guarantee she would sit down on her own and fasten her seat belt. (this is in reference to a previous post about providing choices.) If I was the parent at story time...again I would have given her a choice, "You can come and sit down on the chair, or I will come and carry you to the chair." If that didn't work and she was being that distracting to the other kids, I would have said, "You can come and sit down and listen to the story or we will leave and go home." And yes, I would take her home if I had to.

I understand some things are easier said then done, but again we have responsibilities as parents even if that means we have to follow through on something we don't want to.