Grandma Power!

When did it become all right for everybody except the actual gene-linked people to control kids?

I responded to an article in a local amateur (see definitions below before going bonkers) paper in which a woman whispered that she'd overheard two kids excitedly saying about their newly-purchased bb guns:

"Dan says we can shoot starlings and blue jays* with these!"

The writer was so worried.  How could she tell the kids this was a bad thing to do?  The mother was standing right there and the woman didn't want to butt in.  I wrote in a letter to the editor with helpful hints, but since the paper didn't have those the editor forwarded it to the writer. 

The letter basically told her she should wait until the mom left the store and be seen taking down the license plate.  When mom asked why the hell that was being done, the short answer was -- "For the game department." 

Don't bother trying to train kids when their own parents don't know any better.  Go right for the source.  The fines mom and dad would have to pay would go to help support wildlife habitat.  Win-win (well, not for mom and dad or the kids, but that was the parents' fault in the first place).

The writer whimpered back, "I couldn't do that.  They were my grandkids."

WHAT???? 

Since when did Grandma lose the right to tell her own little precious gene-bags how to behave?  They're important to her bloodline, and if she doesn't have the right to form values, who does?

The schools?  The rest of society?  The government?  The rest of us who aren't related to them, and regardless of pious pronouncements, really don't care about anything we're not blood-linked to? (And if anybody says they do, I'd be looking really carefully to see what their actual agenda was.)

Oops.  Never mind.  I just answered my own questions.  The people who are actually most interested in the welfare of these kids have handed over the right to form their values to everybody else.  No wonder schools have no time for math, science and civics.  No wonder you and I -- as free, consenting adults -- can't watch a movie or read a book in peace and quiet or, in too many cases, hold hands or steal a kiss, without all this worry about whether or not A Little Child May See It. 

Get back in charge, Grandma -- and Grandpa, too!  And while we're at it, throw some responsibility to the parents.  They're the ones made these kids in the first place.

*Around here they're Stellar's jays.