Incidents Like State Fair Make Parents Think

For the past few weeks, our youngest daughter has been dutifully counting down the days on her calendar. Every day or so, she's been checking in with me to see what the date is, just to make sure she is on track with the countdown... the one leading up to her birthday.

Perplexed, I finally asked her why she is so excited about this particular birthday, which happens to be this week. As far as I could recall, we hadn't promised her any spectacular presents.

I hadn't even gotten around to planning a birthday party yet (no super-mom points here). If you have a kid with a summer birthday, or happen to have one yourself... you probably understand how easy it is for parties to fall by the wayside in the planning department.

Anyway, it wasn't any of those things. Her answer made total sense when she finally said, "It's because I won't have to sit in my booster seat when I ride in the car anymore!"

Ah, yes. It made me realize how easy it is to lose sight of the things that seem so insignificant to us, but are really a big deal to our kids. For her, it is a major rite of passage into finally being a 'big kid' like her older siblings.

I recently signed up online for a 'Parenting Tip of the Day.' Everyday they send me a little quip or quote about being a parent... sometimes they are funny, sometimes it's a piece of useful advice and often it's just a little encouragement that we are all on this parenting road together.

One of the quotes I got recently was this: "Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them." -Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady (1963 – 1969)

I think this is a great thing to keep in mind no matter what age your kids are. It really hit home when I watched all the news coverage concerning the

I know many people are shaking their heads, wondering "Why"? And that's just the start of the many questions surrounding this incident. What makes a group of young people decide to form a mob and start randomly attacking people at a public event? Was it motivated by race, as some witnesses thought it was? Why does this seem to be a growing trend?

There was the group of teens that rampaged through Mayfair Mall back in January of this year knocking over racks of clothing and frightening shoppers. Then there was the gas station incident in Milwaukee in July which was followed by random attacks on people in nearby parks. Now the State Fair. 

I know I am not the only person asking, "Just where are the parents of these kids?" After all, good kids don't just one day decide to form a mob, ransack the fair and then run through the streets beating strangers.

I feel fortunate to live in a community that realizes the importance of being a good citizen. As such, I always tell my kids, "Don't think you can get away with much in Greendale."   

I'm certainly not trying to say our kids are any better than anyone else's. After all, we are fortunate not to have many of the problems that plague the inner-city, such as poverty, lack of opportunities and absentee parenting. It certainly has to make raising kids that much harder.

However, we parents are all on this road together and when the results of a lack of parenting in one community spill over into another, incidents like the one at State Fair start to affect us all.

Just another reason to heed Lady Bird Johnson's advice and set our expectations high, not only for our own kids but for everyone's.

And it needs to start even before they are out of their booster seats... and on their way to being 'big kids' who will become big contributors to their communities or big problems for themselves and others.