Today’s blog is on responsibility.
When I was a wee laddie, I had a paper route. Most days I didn’t mind it but when it rained or snowed, it was a pain. Then one day it was sleeting – ice particles coming down sideways in the wind, stinging my face. I cried and told my mother, “I don’t want to do this!”
She told me, “You have a responsibility to the people in each house on your paper route. You can quit tomorrow, but tonight you have to deliver the papers and meet your responsibility.”
I never forgot that. I kept my paper route for 5.5 years, until I graduated from high school. I learned responsibility and commitment were as important as honesty and saving money. In fact, they all went hand-in-hand.
Kids today can’t get a paper route. In fact, very few kids do things like mow lawns or other activities to earn money. So how do they learn responsibility?
It would have to come from parents or school and neither seems to have stepped up to the plate. Am I wrong or are kids not forced to do chores any more? We cleaned our rooms, did the dishes, took out the trash, walked the dog, mowed the lawn, and even cleaned bathrooms. Those were our responsibilities as members of the household. Chores came first, then homework, then play, if there was time.
How do kids learn responsibility when everyone on the team gets a trophy even without doing much? What do they learn when every student passes to the next grade whether they can read, do math, or spell or not? How do they learn to stick with something when forcing them to do so is called bullying? Avoiding responsibility has become a game that many are quite good at playing.
Discipline has been mostly removed from teachers hands – they get fired if they do what teachers did in my day. Parents aren’t around to mete out punishment because both (if there are two) have to work. Kids run amok with their phones attached to their heads and hands.
Today, it seems, many people blame others when something goes wrong. Accidents are the other driver’s fault, even if you were speeding or texting. Poor grades are the teacher’s fault. Getting fired is the boss’ fault or maybe a coworker. Not being able to make ends meet or to pay bills is society’s fault – wages are too low. The government should pay my student loans not because I failed to keep track of how much debt I was creating, but because it is only “fair.”
“It’s not my fault!”
Really? Well maybe it is. Most things are.
Thanks for reading.
