My rant - Didn't your parents teach you anything?

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So, I'm at a doctor's office with my dad for a check up. The building is fairly new and the furniture is nice and well taken care of.
So, as I'm sitting there, as young woman, in her early twenties flops down on the chair and puts both of her dirty shoes on the chair sitting, in kind of like a squat position, -if that can be visualized- as she's on her smartphone. I give her the look of "really!?". Then my dad, who's 83, says in a voice loud enough to for her to hear, "I guess manners aren't taught anymore." She gets up and moves to another part of the waiting area.

At another visit at the same office, a couple of I'd say late 20's - early 30's are sitting together on a couch again on their smartphones - but this time they have an old pair of shoes on a nice table with a paper with their appointments on top of the shoes. Seriously!? Who puts dirty shoes on top of a nice table? These uncouth people, apparently!

Then, there's my twelve year old nephew who picks up food off the serving plate without a fork, then eats it. Then, he uses a spoon to get the sour cream. The sour cream he couldn't get off the spoon he uses his fingers to push the rest on his plate. He licks his fingers then, repeats. He looks at me. He knows I saw what he was doing. Seriously!
I asked him flat out, in front of everybody, "Didn't your parents teach you any manners?"
He says "What!?"
I reply, "You know 'what'". He just looks at me, then looks at my sister, his mom. I look at her. My dad looks at her, then, she says, "You know better than that!" I don't think he does.
Some people's kids.

I know there are other things to get worked up about, but I guess I'm bitterly mourning the loss of common courtesy, manners and basic etiquette.

End of rant.
 
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Yeah, I know what you mean. Young folks have no manners OR respect for anyone or for anything.

And yes, I catch myself "channeling" my dad all the time. Guess that just goes to prove that he was as much smarter than I gave him credit for as I am smarter than my teenager gives me credit for....
 
Not worth ranting- too much in life too let things bother you. And yes it bothered you or it wouldn't have been in your mind all day then put in writing. Yup.
 
Ματθιας;138535272 said:
At another visit at the same office, a couple of I'd say late 20's - early 30's are sitting together on a couch again on their smartphones - but this time they have an old pair of shoes on a nice table with a paper with their appointments on top of the shoes. Seriously!? Who puts dirty shoes on top of a nice table? These uncouth people, apparently!
End of rant.

What like toe tags?
 
Not worth ranting- too much in life too let things bother you. And yes it bothered you or it wouldn't have been in your mind all day then put in writing. Yup.

Well, I think the OP is right. Those signs of disrespect and selfishness carry over into more serious things that do affect us as they grow up and handle our food, finances, medical care and all the other fields they choose to go into as they "mature".
The term " nip it in the bud" comes to mind.
 
Things to get by in life are not taught at home anymore, some parents expect the school system to do that and with the government no child left behind program our little angels are passed from the elementary system to the high school system and finally to the penal system.
 
I don't think some of those people care at all. If they have to teach or correct a child, that would be WORK. Most don't have any time for that. I would really like to see what this place looks like in 25 years. Fortunately I'll be long gone by then.
 
I still see plenty of kids with a good upbringing. Unfortunately, it's the buttheads that really stand out.

You nailed it! I'm 71 and worked with lots of kids-juvy kids in 1970's were the "old style" delinquents, then I was the superintendent of a juvy program from 1986-90 and they were the new style, all had issues of course and the problems were derived from similar stuff but the drugs & the isim's change, etc. but underlying is sameo-no parenting. Some are parented but mental issues, mostly it's the lack already mentioned.
The "regular run" of school kids in the rural, E KY schools I worked in are by far great kids that sometimes have the helicopter parenting too. I also coached kids in teens and general run is great kids. My grand children are well parented and vary little from what we think of as the kids of the past but they do have a society that's changed a bunch. Think of the stuff a kids exposed to now from my days growing up in 1940'2 & 50's-WOW! My 4 yr old GD has an old smart phone that she listens to Waylon Jenning's as one of her fave singers, yet watches Peppa Pig on TV. I asked her dad (son) if he would mind me filling in the details on Waylon for her.
I say kids are kids-if they get the chance to be such...
Me thinks the draft or a "national service venue" would serve our youth well.
 
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As I've said in another thread, I drive a school bus. So far, the high school and junior high kids haven't been too taxing. But the young ones? I don't think some of these kids have ever heard the word "no" in their home lives.

Wednesday I take a 5 year old back to her school because there was no parent at the bus stop to meet her. I found out yesterday she had to wait at school for 2 hours for her parent(s) to get her. Really? 2 hours? School gets out the same time every Wednesday, and you couldn't bother to remember to be at the bus stop to pick up your child? No wonder kids aren't taught manners and responsibility - their parents don't have any either.
 
I'm lost on the whole serving tray/sour cream thing

This is the picture in my mind.

Some type of meat is brought to the table, sliced, on a platter. It has sour cream poured over it. The child in question, instead of stabbing a piece of meat with his fork, picks it up with his fingers, possibly moving one piece aside to get to the piece he wants.

He then takes his spoon and scoops up as much sour cream as he can, leaving none for anyone else (kinda like the scene in You've Got Mail, with Tom Hanks and the caviar, at 2:14 into this clip) and when he had gotten all he could using his spoon, stuck his hand down and scooped up a finger-full, off the serving platter, licked the finger clean, and then stuck his now-spit-covered-finger back down to the serving platter to get another finger-full.


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAQogHJ529g[/ame]
 
This is the picture in my mind.

Some type of meat is brought to the table, sliced, on a platter. It has sour cream poured over it. The child in question, instead of stabbing a piece of meat with his fork, picks it up with his fingers, possibly moving one piece aside to get to the piece he wants.

He then takes his spoon and scoops up as much sour cream as he can, leaving none for anyone else (kinda like the scene in You've Got Mail, with Tom Hanks and the caviar, at 2:14 into this clip) and when he had gotten all he could using his spoon, stuck his hand down and scooped up a finger-full, off the serving platter, licked the finger clean, and then stuck his now-spit-covered-finger back down to the serving platter to get another finger-full.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAQogHJ529g
Gotcha. Thanks. I had a different visual.

Funny thing is around family and friends we all eat finger food like that. Meat and cheese platters are usually eaten without utensils. Bread is literally broken by hand.

No better way
cdc985a6677e3f63ec76269f2cab2673.jpg
 
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