Anyone who is a parent wonders if their kid is going to become a great citizen or turn into a total jerk. We can fill their heads with the differences between right and wrong, lead by example, show them how to be polite and considerate, but in the end they will decided their direction. We can only prepare them so much and eventually your offspring will become the person they are destined to be. This is part of the hopelessness that comes with becoming a parent. 

Nobody purposely raises a jerk, right?  Even when misinforming your child on how to react in certain situations, you still have their best interests in mind. Maybe they go astray or misinterpret your teachings?  Maybe you feel that this is the right way because it’s the way you were raised and you turned out ok?  

At the basic level, kids today aren’t too different than when we were kids. Same amount of fingers, toes, arms and legs. They get hungry-you feed them. Same needs, etc. 

Yet, they are very different when it comes to outside influences, emotions and how to cope. Ten year old you was not surrounded with the same influences and challenges as the ten year olds of today. Remember, we are the “be home before the street lights come on” generation. Many of your parent’s tactics have become shunned by society and even deemed illegal. Kids can no longer lay unbuckled in the backseat floorboard as dad smokes cigarettes and drives 65mph with the windows rolled up.  Why?  How did that suddenly become wrong?  Haha. Congrats on living through all that!

The other day my nine year old son was riding his bike over to his friend’s house. His buddies live about six houses down, so I don’t worry too much about what could happen to him between our house and theirs, but I’m a parent so I can’t help but worry just a little. He rode his bike down to their house, only to realize that they were not home. He had no idea I was watching him, as he was already on his way to their house when I came outside. As he rode his bike back to our house, I watched him stop about four houses down.  We don’t know the family at this house (they are new) so I wasn’t sure why he stopped. He got off his bike, set it on the ground, walked over to their fallen trashcan and picked it up. My son had no idea if anyone was watching, especially me, saw a situation in need of improvement and did the right thing. 

C.S. Lewis: Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.

I’m not saying my son is perfect. Like all of us, he’s a work in progress. I’m not writing this to convince anyone that I am a the greatest parent in the world and this is not an annoying “look at me, I’m better than you” Facebook post or some sort of humble brag, but my heart did swell up with pride knowing that he did a good thing and didn’t care if anyone was watching. The owners of this trashcan don’t know us and we don’t know them.  In a world where people sit and watch situations developing without reacting appropriately or instead, pulling out their camera to record the event instead of helping, I’m happy that I helped create a kid that did a simple #Tryharder act of just being neighborly. Sadly, it’s a rare thing these days. 

#Tryharder.