Children Gone Wild

I am sitting in the Omaha airport right now and currently witnessing one of the most horrendous episodes of unchecked child outrage that I have ever seen. The little girl is about 6 years old and is hitting, kicking, screaming (my ears are ringing right now), and running away from her Mom. Her Mom is sort of trying to do something about it, but simply will not discipline her child.

Thoughts:

1. I don't have all the information. This seems rather extreme, but perhaps there is information that I am not privy too that would help explain this situation. I should not be too quick to judge until I have listened to understand. Self-righteousness is right around the corner in my heart. I should easily remember the times (just about 10 min ago when we were passing through the security check!) when my children were hard to manage.

2. Kids are crying out for discipline. It's almost as though this little girl loves the give and take dance of her lashing out and her mother quietly trying to tell her to sit down. I believe that kids instinctively know that they need to be lovingly disciplined. It shows attentive care for them. You can see it in this little girl's eyes when she freaks out at her Mom that she is just waiting for her Mom to do something and continues to push it until she get some sort of reaction.

3. Kids will take as far as you give them. Sin runs deep in all of us and if we don't model God's disapproval for sin we do them a grave disservice. "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him." Prov. 22:15.

4. The way to keep your child in check has to start at the home. If you want to manage your children well in public you had better be sure to manage them consistently at home, especially since you might get slapped with a lawsuit if you attempt to spank your child in public. I am not comfortable with spanking my kids in public, but my children know for sure that Dad will follow through when we are in the appropriate context. Your kids have to know that your words mean something. If you never follow through with what you say you are going to do then you simply become a liar in their eyes.