What Kind of Mother?

What kind of mother would take her 5 year old son to Wal-Mart and leave him alone in the McDonald's there while she shopped? When I saw this happen the other day, I was shocked that it still goes on in spite of all the news broadcasts, magazine stories and TV shows about how children get abducted.

You could tell by the way the mother roughly shoved her son into the seat and yelled at him not to move until she got back that his home life was far from ideal. Having grown up in a similar environment myself, my heart went out to the little fellow. All the help lines in the world do not stop children from being abused. Children who are abused at home are too afraid to make those calls. Surely society has figured that out by now.

Everywhere you go nowadays, you see children who need a firmer hand. This misbehaving little monsters need a swat on the bottom to know mom means business. These parents are afraid to use corporal discipline or social services will come knocking on their door to take away their children. A swat on the behind is not abuse, it gets their attention and they learn that mom and dad are there to guide them. They obey and learn. These undisciplined monsters are turning into undisciplined teens and adults and it is sickening to see. Everything is me, me, me.

Then you see the other side of the coin, the children who are terrified of making mom and/or dad mad. Their scared little faces haunt me. I want to take them all home and give them a loving environment. Social services does not go knocking on their door - often they are too scared of the parents who fly into a rage when they appear so they leave these children to fend for themselves. They make themselves busy with taking away the child of a mother who has put up with her child's tantrums long enough and has put the little one over her knee and paddled his behind.

What kind of mother are you? What kind of mother am I? Certainly no saint here, I made my share of mistakes along the way. My children were spoiled rather than abused but I also used a swat on the behind to keep them in line until they learned the social skills necessary for life.