We expect a two year old to have a temper-tantrum-sometimes we call this age the 'terrible twos'. But a two year old grows up and grows out of tantrums-right? Well, most do but some don't, and they become 22, 32 or 42 year old tantrums-not a pretty sight. My friend Tammy was the victim of a full blown-adult 'temper tantrum' at a Target store parking lot.
It started when an 'adult' lady (and I use that term loosely) pulled up behind my friend with her blinker on, which indicates she spotted the open parking space first. When Tammy saw the ladies blinker on, she gave her preference-which of course is the unspoken rule-no problem so far. Then Tammy saw a spot next to the lady open up, so she turned on her blinker, for that one.
Once Tammy hit the blinker-the lady hit the roof-she went from zero to ugly. It turned into a 'Jerry Springer incident'. The lady accelerated her tantrum from honking the horn-to swinging a purse-to spitting in Tammy's face. The entire freak show was witnessed by the ladies 12 year old daughter, who sat in the passenger seat, head down covering her face. The 12 year became the adult and apologized to Tammy for her mother's behavior. It's too bad the 12 year old wasn't the one driving and her mom in a child "car seat". Why are we observing so many Adult temper tantrums lately?
I don't believe we are worse off now than any other time in history-but let's face it-civility is taking a hit-adults are near the boiling point which sometimes spills over. Recently a Congressman, a Hip Hop star and Tennis pro were unable to keep it together and they hit the ugly button. There may be many causes, but it all boils down to self control-the ability to govern our emotions.
There are two competing urges we fight daily, one is an infantile need "to be taken care of" and the other is a desire to be 'responsible for ourselves'-the first one makes no demands-the latter one demands responsibility. The first one breeds entitlement-the latter one breed's autonomy. If we don't govern ourselves-we will be governed. The lady at Target chose to be governed by her emotions.
Right on!! It seems more and more people in our society feel they have the right to do what pleases them at everyone elses expense. We can see from history there have always been selfish individuals but that seemed to be the exception rather than the rule. This sort of behavior was not tollerated and people were looked down upon for such antics. Now it's not uncommon to see people losing tempers in parking lots, retail store lines and just about everywhere people are called upon to exercise civility. Just go to a childrens sporting event sometime and observe the behavior of many of the parents. It's no wonder so many children are unruly, look at the parents.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the role models kids select come from the sporting world where it's not uncommon to see poor sportsmanship or hollywood (absolutely no morals at all). With parents like these and pathetic role models, there's not much hope for the next generation.
I think the problem with many of these out of control people is that their parents didn't love them enough to properly discipline them. They still think throwing a fit when they don't get what they want is okay.