"I'll Teach You to Hit Your Sister!"

[I feel the need to write and know that there is not enough time- so I call this a draft and plan to come revise and polish. Please bear with me.....]

I carefully perused the cereal aisle- I often wonder why that seems to be the highlight and mainstay of grocery shopping trips. Perhaps it's the lingering longing from my childhood for just the right cereal with just the right prize- perhaps it's just that my children love cereal. Who knows?

A simmering feud interrupted my prize quest. I could sense the tension in the cart coming up the aisle. The two children, a 4 year old boy and 2 year old girl, had obviously been thrust into the cart, were not getting along, and the mother appeared to be close to reaching critical mass. Closer than anyone imagined, it turned out. I didn't see the catalyzing incident, but I assume there was some sort of sibling poking or smacking. Then this frustrated mother squelched out with such menace I had not heard in years, "I'll teach you to hit your sister!" and she hauled off and smacked the 4 year old full force, open hand, and hard- with intent.

Now this could easily turn into a biting indictment of the mother's reaction- and I honestly don't mean it to be so. Not that it was right- but.....it was her preceding statement that struck me like her hand had struck her son. "I'll teach you to hit your sister." I thought, "Yes you will, ma'am. Yes you will."

We have to have licenses to operate motor vehicles, to get married, and to own a weapon. Heck, we even have to have a license to catch a fish or shoot an animal. We don't, however, have to have a license to be a parent- the most sacred and holy calling, next to being a spouse, on this earth. I don't think that parental licensing is appropriate, but I do think that right along with English- and you KNOW how important that is to me- math and history, we should teach some parenting techniques.

The old aphorism, "The sins of the parents are visited upon the heads of the children" is too often true. And too often, far too many times, we DO teach our child to hit his sister.... or cheat on his taxes, or not respect womanhood or manhood or marriage. We teach; they learn, and the cycles repeat themselves. I plead with those who read here- be breakers of cycles- teach those you love in turn to love and respect and cherish. Therein we will find truly unbridled joy. And maybe the prize in the cereal won't matter as much. Maybe....