Manners

Why don't parents teach their children manners these days? I guess the majority do, but I don't understand the ones who don't. Because then their children grow to be unruly teenagers who have no respect for other people in the grocery store. And yes, I'm talking about me. How did you know?

I was at the store this evening and at the check-out beside me, there was a dad with his 3 sons, I'm guessing them to be 17, 15, 13-ish in age. The youngest was older than Zoomer, but not by much. So just as I'm leaving my check-out, the oldest kid puts their grocery cart in the very middle of the isle...which is considerably narrow because this particular store is under some major renovations. In the very middle of the isle. So I said excuse me and he moved the cart without acknowleding me. Whatever.

So as I'm walking down the narrow corrider (it's cordoned off by plywood on both sides and just wide enough for 2 people to fit side by side), the youngest kid runs past me. Runs. And the middle kid is not far behind, pushing the cart. And then he bumps my foot. I stopped because it actually got my sandal, looked at my foot, said outch and looked at him. He just stared at me and passed me by. Without saying a word. Not even an Oops. And then he proceeded to race through the parking lot, chasing after his brother.

What bothers me isn't the fact that I got bumped, although now my right sandal feels like a flip-flop and they were my favourite pair, but what bothers me is that he didn't apologize. Sure he didn't mean to do it, but just say you're sorry. Manners. If I was parked closer to them, I would have said Thanks for apologizing. I really would have.

Speaking of kids.

Mine went to Marineland yesterday for their school trip. They all had so much fun and went on just about every ride there was. For the life of me, I don't remember there being any rides at Marineland from when I was a kid. Husband assures me there were, but I only remember the whales, dolphins, deer and buffalo. Yes, buffalo. There used to be a big area to the right when you walked into the entrance.

Anyhoo, I gave the boys each 10 bucks for spending money and Zoomer bought a stuffed walrus for his baby sister. Isn't that just the sweetest thing? Shaggy bought candy. Surprising, I know. Tigger bought everyone in his group ice cream and with his leftover money, he bought himself a rubber walrus (I'm sure the dad in charge of his group helped out with paying for the ice cream, because Tigger still came home with change...) So again with a walrus. I thought maybe they had a special display of them, so I asked Tigger if he had a name...I'm thinking Orka or Shamu or something...and he said I'm calling him Michael. Michael! Michael the Walrus, sometimes also referred to as Waffle. How cute is that!

I like my kids. I try to teach them manners, and I don't let them run through grocery stores or in parking lots.