Something came up in a recent thread about the need for a societal/global responsibility for all children, not just our own. 2 things this week have got me thinking about that. DH drove past a small child who was standing by a dead cat. He was about to stop to see if there was anything he could do, in case the cat belonged to the child, then thought better of it. He was worried someone might think he was up to no good approaching a strange child.
Event 2. PIL had a party at the weekend, of the quiet, sitting in the garden variety, with a large number of mainly elderly guests. 3 children from a few doors down came to have a nose over the fence. They started throwing stones & bricks at my DS. I told them- politely- to go away & told DS to go back into the main bit of the garden so as not to wind them up.
A bit later they came back with a large water pistol & aimed it at a 90 year old lady, over the fence. Someone else shouted at them & they went away. A bit later they tried throwing bricks at FILs garage windows. FIL threatened to have a word with their dad, but said to us there was no point as he'd do nothing.
These children were about 8 years old- no older (& not little enough not to realise). When I previously posted about bad behaviour in other people's children, a lot of you felt it was no big deal. But what makes a young child think it's OK to attack elderly people? What sort of a society are we making? (& this is a pleasant rural village, not a deprived inner city).
When I was that age I can remember rival gangs of kids creeping up on eachother, but I'm sure we wouldn't have tried to disrupt a group of adults. If we had, you can be sure that the adults would have had a go, then told our fathers who would have had an even worse go- at us!
Our parents brought us up to fit in with the way things were done, and not to cause embarrassment to them (the worst sin we could commit). A lot of todays parents seem to think the only important thing is that their child is happy, & sod everyone else.
I'm sure everyone will disagree with me but is this reasonable behaviour from primary age children? Did you act like this?