Thursday, June 07, 2012

The Blurry Line of Right and Wrong

Recently I was talking with a mom who took her kids to the movies for her son's birthday, when the movie they paid for was over they 'snuck' into a second theatre and watched another movie. Her justification was "well if I have to pay $13 per kid I'd better get my money's worth". And I know of another mom who sees nothing wrong with getting copies of bootlegged movies because she feels she doesn't have to pay for them - that the movie companies already make enough money and it's not wrong. Her son has tried to reason with her, he's tried to tell her that it's stealing, but she's better at arguing than he is and always finds a reason to justify it, much to her son's frustration.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not down on mothers and I understand how expensive it can be to pay for all the things kids do, but I am concerned with these issues. My father once told me about "Little Johnny" who was in trouble for stealing a pencil and the parent said "don't steal pencils Little Johnny, I'll bring you some home from work". I am concerned most about the examples that parents set. Again, I acknowledge that I am not perfect and have made errors in judgement just like other people but these parents weren't acknowledging an error they were expressing 'getting their money's worth'. Parents have been known to say their kids are younger than they are so they can get in for free, or pay the kid's fare and not the adult's fare and plenty of other examples .... so do you think this gives kids the wrong lesson or do they learn their lessons in other places so this isn't a big deal?


1 comment:

rebecca @ older and wisor said...

YIKES!

I did my fair share of stupid things growing up, but stealing (because that's really what we're talking about here, isn't it? Taking something you didn't pay for?) wasn't one. Now as a parent, I definitely choose my battles, but my kids know that dishonesty will never go unpunished.

And you're totally right - it's OUR job to set the example :)