Not sure if you’ve seen the video which is in this article:  http://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/real-life/video-father-stands-up-to-racist-bullies-in-emotional-video-308636.html

This gentleman has made a video to publicize behavior which he feels is inappropriate.  I agree with him 100%  I love the fact that he is sticking up for her.  I do the same for my kids, and sometimes get myself in trouble trying to do that which I think is right for other kids.

Some people thing I’m a hypocrite to try to stop, or maybe better, limit what some kids are doing at younger and younger ages.  Things like drinking, or smoking pot.  They may think I’m a hypocrite as I did those things when I was young – too young, I’ll admit. (Maybe it’s the curse of having older siblings – you try to keep up with their behavior.) They think it’s a “do what I say, not what I did” kind of a situation.  Well, not quite.  It’s a “look what I’ve learned over the years” type of thing. I’ve learned that the earlier one starts drinking and doing drugs, the more likely that individual is to have larger problems in their future.  Personally, I think that it also gets them hanging out with people who are doing the same things, and the transition to harder alcohol and drugs is made easier.  I’m not against drinking (not a big pot fan), but the reason that I don’t want my kids doing these things is that being under the influence leads to making bad decisions.  Decisions about driving cars, doing more drugs, drinking more alcohol, having sex, speaking about people, committing crimes, wasting time that they could be using to further their development in better areas, etc., etc., etc. It leads to no good.

“Kids need to learn for themselves!” Maybe that’s your argument.  I don’t buy it.  I think it’s my job to watch out for my kids – to keep an eye on them.  To see with whom they are hanging out.  To steer them to nicer kids and families that have the same feelings on the matter that I do.  It’s my job.  It’s the most important job that I have – keeping my kids safe, so that when they are more mature, they’ll have the ability to learn for themselves the greater lessons of life.

One of my best friends in the world thinks it’s ok that his 15 year-old son has an occasional beer.  I disagree.  Strongly.  Most studies done recently, point toward early drinking leading to problems with alcohol later in life.  “I don’t want him going to college and going crazy, so I think it’s ok if he starts early.”  Oh, so he’ll be an experienced drinker when he gets to college?  That’s the goal?  You think he still won’t go crazy?  I bet he brings it to a whole new level when he’s unsupervised.  It leads to more bad decisions – and earlier bad decisions.

“In Europe, kids drink early, and they don’t have the problems that we do.”  Uh, wrong – teen alcohol issues are MORE widespread there than here, because they start earlier.

“We did it!” I get this one a lot.  We did it.  Yes, we did.  Of course the drinking age then was 18, and we were pretty close to that point.  When the drinking age is 21, and your kid is 15, he still has 1/3 of his life to live before being legal to drink.  It’s not a fair comparison.  See the next paragraph for more…

Don’t buy that one?  How about this story:  We moved to a new house almost two years ago. My next door neighbor kept his cars parked in the street during the first snowstorm that we had, and when the plow came, it missed most of the area in front of my house because it had to go around his cars – totally screwing me.  On top of that, he took all of the snow that was on top of and around his car, and put it in front of my house – where I typically park my cars. (It’s illegal to park on the street during snowstorms in my neighborhood, but that fact seemed to be lost on him – he should have been parked in his driveway, anyway). So I go out to clean up the FEW FEET of snow that we got, and the pile in front of my house is almost 6 feet high!  I am ripping mad.  In New York, this would be a major problem, and someone would have had his car buried with that snow, and a few flat tires for good measure.  Ah, but this is suburbia – people don’t act that way here.  I went and knocked on my neighbors front door, and pointed out in a very nice manor, that the guy totally screwed me. (I didn’t say that, of course)  His response was simple, and relates to this issue – he said, “I’ve been doing it that way for 40 years.”  Nothing gets me going more than “That’s how we’ve always done it.”  Hate that reasoning, as it’s not reasoning at all!  My response to the guy next door?  I said, “I’ve been robbing banks for 25 years.  Doesn’t make it right.”  I walked away, and went to try to start my snow blower, which wouldn’t start.  I saw my neighbor come out of his house, grab his shovel, and head out towards the front.  He mentioned in passing that he was going to move the snow.  I said, “Thank you.”  Simple.  Good decision by him.  Not that I would have buried his car, or flattened his tires.  I wouldn’t have.  Two wrongs don’t make a right, right?  Just because I drank, doesn’t mean it was right.  It wasn’t, and it never will be the right thing to do.  As a friend said recently, “21 is 21.”

Anyway, I stopped drinking over a year and a half ago.  I’m not sure when I’ll go back, or if I will – I’m not an alcoholic, thank God.  I do find it interesting watching my friends and their behavior now that I’m sober.  It’s interesting to see them get in their cars with their young kids, and drive home after a few beers or drinks, or whatever.  That was me, and I didn’t realize it.  There’s one of those bad decisions that I was talking about – bad decisions aren’t only for the young!  Now I realize how stupid I was – what cargo is more important than my kids?  NONE. I’ve decided that their development is the most important thing in my life.  They are the most important thing in the world to me. Don’t I owe them my best?

(PS – came across this and thought it might be considered relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XPZyxPiOwA&x-yt-ts=1421914688&x-yt-cl=84503534 )