What children learn.

I read something about Bill Cosby (I reprinted it below) recently and it made me think about a few things.  By the way, I didn't like the Cosby show (the family was too perfect) and we won't even talk about Leonard Part 6, loved Fat Albert though.  He's talking about how kids are learning bad habits from their parents and since I'm a parent I wondered what my kids may be learning from me.  

I grew up in the furniture business, two of my siblings are in it now, so when one of my children mentioned that the dining room chairs had rabbit ears I was rather proud, my brother was proud and I know my parents would have been happy.  That's good, will there be bad things they learn from us?  I don't swear much but I do call people crackheads if they do something stupid.  The same kid said that about someone; I need to stop doing that.  

I don't know much about Paris Hilton, but I bet she knows more about business and wealth than the majority of people in the nation just because she grew up in a family that was talking about it.  See what I mean?  When my kids are teens will they punk out their friends for not thinking that the 9th amendment is the most awesome?  We don't mean to teach them that but will it pervade their impressionable little minds?  I have restaurant experience out the wazoo so when I cook dinner I plate it up, my wife puts the stuff on the table and you help yourself.  What will our minions do?  I dress more formally while my wife is more of a tank top and jeans kind of person; one kid is a tomboy, one is a girly girl and we haven't figured out the other two.  

This I think is the hardest part of being a parent.  The stuff that you don't mean to teach them but they learn anyway.  Hitler may be the best example, his mother was Jewish and apparently his father beat her.  Did that start him on his pogrom?  I like that theory better than he was just some really cold, ruthless, calculating son of a bitch.  

How many people have done some illegal/immoral/vile act and the parents are freaking out because their child couldn't do that?  Or was the parent thinking:  "What did I do wrong in raising my child so they thought this was okay?"  That whole takes a village theme is interesting, if your child does something bad how do you know it wasn't some other villager?

Doesn't matter, if your child does something great then the credit goes to the kid.  If they do something wrong the blame goes to them also.  However, a (good) parent is always wondering if they could have done something better.




BILL HAS GONE AND DONE IT AGAIN... 

They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. 
I can't even talk the way these people talk: 
Why you ain't, 
Where you is,
What he drive,
Where he stay,
Where he work,
Who you be...
And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.
And then I heard the father talk.
Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.
In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an Education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around.
The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.
These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids.
$500 sneakers for what?
And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.
Where were you when he was 2?
Where were you when he was 12?
Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol?
And where is the father? Or who is his father?
People putting their clothes on backward:
Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?
People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something?

Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?
What part of Africa did this come from??
We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa .....

I say this all of the time. It would be like white people saying they are European-American. That is totally stupid.
I was born here, and so were my parents and grand parents and, very likely my great grandparents. I don't have any connection to Africa, no more than white Americans have to Germany , Scotland , England , Ireland , or the Netherlands . The same applies to 99 percent of all the black Americans as regards to Africa . So stop, already! ! !
With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap ......... And all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem.
We have got to take the neighborhood back.
People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' -- or men or whatever you call them now.
We have millionaire football players who cannot read.
We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We, as black folks have to do a better job.
Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us.
We have to start holding each other to a higher standard..
We cannot blame the white people any longer.'

~Dr.. William Henry 'Bill' Cosby, Jr., Ed..D.

WELL SAID, BILL
It's NOT about color...
It's about behavior!!!