Poor Parenting

To quote my very blunt visiting teacher who I love, if you have bad children, it's because of poor parenting. Ok, so in order not to offend anyone, I have to say, I realize I am not a parent. I realize parenting is hard, and I realize that no matter how good of a parent you are, you can't control your children. Not all misbehaviour reflects on the parent, but you can tell the difference between a child who is allowed to misbehave and one who is misbehaving because of a particular circumstance. My intent is not to offend anyone, so if you are offended by this, I no longer take any responsibility.
With that being said, holy cow, I am amazed at how many parents don't take their responsibility seriously and are beyond lazy about it. I noticed that the current generation (in general) are more concerned with making their children happy and giving them things they didn't have as kids, and being their friend than they are about being a good parent. The majority of kids today are full on brats. Why people? Why don't you take care of your kids?
Here are a few examples of why I am ranting:

• The kids in our neighborhood play in the street, understandable, they move for cars, not a problem. What is a problem is when they have a super soaker out and are squirting cars that go by with it. And the mom just stands there and smiles. First of all, it's dangerous, because you don't know what kind of psycho might drive by. Second of all, it makes people angry. Third, you are teaching your children it is ok to not respect others or their property. Sweet!
• There is a mom in our ward that WORSHIPS her 5 year old daughter. I'm talking she gets up and bears her testimony and gives talks about how awesome her daughter is. Therefore, the daughter thinks she is amazing and is actually a BRAT. She has no respect for any adults, or anyone around her really. She thinks the world revolves around her and expects people to give her attention and think she is great. And, this family has a second daughter, but you would have never known it by the way the mom only talks about the first. So she is raising a daughter who thinks she does no wrong. Good job.
• We were up at Hobble Creek Golf Course chipping and putting on their practice green. Along comes this dad on what is obviously a child's scooter. Totally fine, what is the kid doing? Running, while pushing what must be his little brother in a stroller, a regular stroller, not a running stroller. He was running and tipping it back and being crazy with it. Some people may not think that is a big deal, but it was so unsafe! Just let one of your kids kill the other while you ride your little scooter. Good job, dad!
• A couple of weeks ago, Scott and I went to the drag races in Vegas, I won't even start on the tiny children that are being dragged around the strip in the middle of the night.What really got me was the people who took their babies to the drag races. The sound of the cars racing is so bad, it hurts your inner ear drum if you don't have your ear plugs in super tight. And people have their babies there. Those babies can't say, mom that hurts my ears. Come on really? You could give that baby permanent hearing damage at a very early age, lets use common sense.

Once again, I do not have kids, but I do have a lot of nephews and nieces. I can see the difference in a poorly parented child and a well parented child. I do understand that there are no perfect parents and no perfect children, but at least give it a good effort. Good heavens. Don't sit and watch your kid act like a jerk and have no respect. And seriously why did you have kids if you were too selfish to take care of the them the way a child needs? My parents may not have been perfect, but I tell you what, they taught us right from wrong, and you better believe we DID NOT act up in public. We learned very well what happened if we did. Why aren't more parents like that now? We all ended up as respectful, hardworking, good people, so apparently my parents methods weren't that bad. It's just sad that this generation is so laid back about parenting. Do I like kids? On a case by case basis, usually directly related to the parenting. I can't imagine what these kids will grow up to be...