Being a parent is a big responsibility. A father litters while out on the streets with his son, who will do the same. A mother has been rude to people, and a decade from now, her daughter will be pushing everyone around in a similar manner. This article shows how our actions, good and bad, affect what the future generation will be like.
- I saw a boy of about 7 years old throwing a candy wrapper on the pavement. I politely asked him to pick it up and not to litter. The boy picked it up and then, behind another car, threw the wrapper again. I asked him again to pick up the rubbish.
At that moment, his father came out of the shop. I explained the situation to him, and he aggressively responded that it was none of my business. He was furious. But when he got into the car, the boy looked me in the eye, clutched the wrapper in his fist, and nodded. I think he understood. - I work as a high school teacher. In my class, there was a wonderful boy: responsible, and very capable of learning, but he always spoke in short sentences and sounded like a frightened deer about to run away.
One day I had a conversation with him and his parents. And every time the child opened his mouth, he managed to say a sentence only halfway, and the second part of the sentence was finished for him by his mother. It turned out that the boy always spoke like this to get his point across before he was interrupted. © Chanther / Reddit
«I make toys so that the children who come to our shop can play. A mom came in with a boy, he pulled the doll’s hair out, she didn’t say anything and they just left.»
- I had a suitor, a very intelligent guy, but in everyday life, he was a hopeless case. He went to study in Finland and I went to see him a month later. He was skinny, hungry, couldn't cook, and would only eat in the student canteen. Then I realized that I would not wish such a fate on my children, and that they would certainly know how to cook.
- A ninth grader argued with me and demanded an A, even though her work was not good. A few weeks into the school year, I met her mom, who was a member of the parents' association. It was at that exact moment that I realized that her daughter had inherited the mother's nasty habit of treating teachers as subordinates. © eowowen / Reddit
- I went out to get ice cream for my whole family. I was at the cash register about to pay when a little girl who was there with her family came up behind me and said, “Wow, what a lot of ice cream they're buying!!” Her father, who was behind, told her that it was rude to say that. Then he turned around and said, “Wow, that surely is a lot of ice cream!” © theSuparna / Twitter
- Mom says she didn't educate us and had nothing to do with the way we turned out. No way! At the time, I didn't understand why she asked us to iron shirts, why she made us make meatballs and ravioli when we didn't know how to make them as well and as skillfully as she did. Or why we had to struggle to make the beds.
She would have done it all faster, but she was patient despite my failures. But now I know how to do everything and for that, I am grateful to her. - My 3-year-old son broke one of his toys and brought me the piece. And I remembered a story that had happened when I was a couple of years older than him.
Rummaging through my father's toolbox, I found a shiny, attractive thing made of concrete. When I heard from my father that the thing was impossible to break, I was interested. But my father, seeing the spark in my eyes, immediately took it away from me with a sigh, adding, “But you'll definitely break it!” - Lately, I've started to throw my things around the house a lot. And recently, my mother got fed up with picking up everything and said, “What kind of person are you? How can you be like that? You're just like your father.” To which I replied, “Well, if I'm like my father, it means I'll have the best girl in the world.” Mom smiled, kissed me and we made up.
- I was 12 years old when I tried to cook for the first time. My fried eggs were burnt, and I thought my father was going to be angry because I had wasted food. But he just threw them away and said: “It's OK, try again.” That's how I learned that sometimes you have to make a mistake to get the right result. Author unknown / Reddit
- A first-year student was always late, didn't hand in her work on time, or didn't even bring it in. And she had an excuse for everything. I wouldn't even ask her why she wasn't prepared, she would start apologizing.
When she barely got a C, her mother called me. I couldn't discuss a student's performance with anyone, not even the parents, so I explained that to her mother. Afterward, this woman gave a long string of excuses for her daughter and, strangely enough, for herself. And it was immediately clear why the daughter acted that way. © nickiter / Reddit
«I was waiting for my turn to donate blood plasma. Then a mother appeared with bratty children. One of them came up to me and ripped out my hearing aids. That’s it, they don’t work now.»
- I went into my son's room, yelled at him for throwing his clothes away, and lectured him on how to take care of things and how hard it is to earn money. I went back to my room and saw my clothes lying all over the place. I called my son and said, “Now you yell at me.”
- My mother always had problems with my father. She didn't like that he didn't clean up after himself, that he didn't cook, that he didn't know how to put the washing machine on. Over the years, she asked herself the same question: “Who brought him up this way?”
The funny thing is that I have a younger brother, and my parents don't force him to clean, cook, or do homework, and, in general, there is much less control over him than there was over me as a child. They always make up excuses for him. - My grandmother was a primary school teacher. One year, there was a particularly unhygienic kid who kids wouldn't hang out with and was just not pleasant to be around because he smelled really bad. So my grandmother sent a note to his parents, saying maybe he should be bathed a bit more frequently. The next day, the boy arrived at school with a note back from his father, which read: “My son is not a rose. Educate him, don't smell him.” © Instakilla8 / Reddit
«When I was a child, I pretended to wash myself by simply turning on the shower. One day my mother caught me doing it. I never did it again.»
- I lost all my belongings in a fire. A colleague decided to help me and gave me a card with $102. I thanked her profusely, but decided to ask her why it was $102.
She told me that her young son had heard about what had happened to me and wanted to add his pocket money to his mother's $100. Because I needed it more than he did. © John Ruzicka / Quora
Children are an endless source of entertainment — from their funny antics and silly tricks to the strange situations they manage to put themselves in. Their actions may not always be based on logic, but their carefree attitude and nonchalant ways just make them all the more adorable.