What has the world come to?

Reading this morning’s NZ Herald where children as young as 10 or less were threatening people who did not give them sweets for Trick or Treating last night. On top of that there were families transporting children to the more affluent areas for Trick or Treating hoping for better pickings.

What has the world come to? Where are the instillation of values in these families? It beats me!

I personally am not a fan of Halloween. It is a very American thing that has come in over the last few years. I certainly wasn’t brought up with it but then life was a lot simpler back then. The big event of the year was Guy Fawkes. Yes we celebrated a person who wanted to blow up the English Parliament!!

Having said all this, I am not against progress or change. What bothers me most is the behaviour of society. If children are not given sound boundaries and values, where is this society heading to?

Now I am not saying it was all wonderful when I grew up but I sure as hell learnt about the values of gratitude, and respect among others. I learnt that when I was given a gift (even a sweet is a gift) I said thank you, even it if I didn’t really like the sweet I had received.

I learnt that being respectful (courteous and polite) actually received many more rewards than being nasty and disrespectful. Pretty simple logic isn’t it. Why are so many of our children not instilled with these very basic principles these days?

What I also find somewhat disturbing is some of the children causing these problems come from God faring homes. Families who go to church on a regular basis yet somehow these values are escaping being of importance. Is this not part of the religious teaching these days?

So what are we going to do about it? Well I am sorry I don’t have the answers.
All I can say is that I feel proud and comfortable that I have instilled these values in my own children and they will instill them in their children. That is the best I can come up with.

I am not going to put another load on to our school teachers either. I think they do a wonderful job. However they could use a tool such as the virtues in their teaching. It may make things much easier for them in the long run.

I am going to lay the blame firmly back on the parents or parent of the childre. I don’t care if it a one or two parent family, these values start in the home. They come from parents being respectful towards each other and their children and the parents appreciating everyone. You don’t need a two parent family for this to occur.

I was a single parent for many years yet I still managed to set these very basic values into my children. These are learned behaviours and they can be learned. If we go back to the basics of teaching values and the art of giving and receiving we will start to see some changes.

It is time for us to teach our children to think about not what they can get from others but rather what can I give to others. This is a basic law -the art of giving and receiving and it has served society for centuries. For what you give out will return a ten fold dividend – be it time, money, respect, appreciation, love, joy. Pretty simple really don’t you think?