F**king Kids

OK, before I start I will say that I am one of those that has benefited from the Celtic Tiger. I was there back at the start of the boom and I am glad to say that it happened.....most of the time.

However, if there is one thing that I do not like that has changed in this country since the beast arrived is that parents are taking less and less responsibility for their children. Kids, in the main, now a days (its sounds old, doesn't it?) have absolutely no manners at all from what I can see. Most parents seem to leave the task of raising their child with the teachers, football trainers or whatever activity that they send their child too. With most parents working two jobs to keep up the "Jones's" life they seem to spend little time with their kids teaching them manners and the basics of life.

I had the lovely experience last night of having two nine or ten year olds have a go at me in my local shop. While waiting at the cash machine on the way to pay football they decided to have a go at me. I was wearing a Liverpool jersey and so nowadays that's a signal for any child to start having a go at anyone.

"Jesus, he's gay"
"Yeh, a fuckin gay...Liverpool are shit and were fuckin' mauled"
"Hey, gay, Liverpool are shit"

I ignored, didn't look in their direction. The girl at the cash register was also looking to see if there was a reaction but nothing. She was uneasy with this.

Now the few things that I have issue with here are:

1) Why are 10 year olds out at 8.30pm alone - to me that is highly irresponsible from the parents
2) Where are the manners? Growing up I was taught to respect adults, to talk when spoken to and most of all swearing was a total no-no
3) They were buying ice-creams..what sort of parents let their kids eat the rubbish late at night. Its not wonder obesity is on the rise in this country.

All I can say is that those young ones need to be careful. In my eyes if kids want to act all adult and try to be one, they they will suffer like one. One day someone wont ignore them and give them a good hiding - what they deserve and obviously there is nothing coming from the parents. It could have easily been me last night as once they were out of the shop and around the corner, no-one would have seen a thing.

But when are parents going to act like parents? Just because you buy everything for your child, pay for a good education and give them more pocket money that is really needed, doesn't mean you have raised your child well. There are too many smart alec kids out there who will learn the hard way about how to talk and deal with people and also about respecting people.