Unfortunately, I do know how my youngest daughter acts when I’m not around. She has been pushing the boundaries and hanging around kids who have terrible judgment and she is a child who only ever wants to be liked. So, if the kids are doing something wrong, she won’t stand up for herself and walk away. It doesn’t matter that we’ve taught her right and wrong, she lives in the moment and always wants to fit in and be liked. We have no idea why she is like this, but there you have it.

She is respectful of adults, that we do know because we hear it from other parents, teachers and coaches. It’s the sneaky stuff that kids get into that she’s finding herself in the middle of because she won’t or can’t seem to walk away. I’m not blaming anyone for her actions, I just don’t understand how she can get into these situations when I know we’ve taught her better.

Her lack of good judgment about friends and forgetting that there are consequences for her actions have been heartbreaking for us lately. I do wonder if we’ve been too good to our girls. By giving them more than we had, have we inadvertently taught them to expect to get whatever they want and that they never have to work for anything?

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I agree we as parents really can’t know how our children behave except from friends, neighbors, teachers and so forth.

My daughter for the most part is respectful to adults and friendly towards adults and kids and I get positive feedback from friends, teachers and neighbors.

She has taken a huge dislike of one of her teachers this year that caused some behavior that I didn’t like.

We talked about it (she told me what was going on herself and then I called her teacher) and after several discussions, she seems to have shaped up.

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At a young age it is not that hard to teach your children properly and check how they behave. Like Christine says, it are usually not the children of concerned parents who misbehave. When they are young….
But at a certain age you lose control. I know I did a lot of thing that wasn’t supposed to do when I was a teenager. And my parents did raise me properly. Nothing wrong with their morals and values. I just wanted to break out of all the rules.
When I talk with Mum about my “wild years”, she always says: You do your best raising children when they are young. Make sure that at least they know and understand proper values. Then at puberty you let go and hope and pray they will come out fine on the other end of it. Luckily I did.
Even though I misbehaved often, had lots of boyfriends, drank, tried drugs, etc. In my head I knew what I was doing wrong. And that is the most important thing for a teenager, I think. Try, live, enjoy, but above all know what you do. One day the voice in your head will be strong enough to bring you back to reality and a life with responsibilities.
Weren’t you ever young, Jude? Didn’t you do things that only a teenager can come up with?

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I would like to thank everyone for the comments and this post wasn’t really to point fingers or to make anyone feel bad. It was more along the lines of my observations of the youth today especially where I live and how they behave in public without regard for anyone else or their property.

I was young once Suzanne, but I don’t recall the blatant disrespect and attitudes of the youth today. I think the world we live in today is a scary place for our children, hell it’s a scary place for adults and depending on locality and economics I don’t see attitudes changing any time soon.