When I first started talking about the quality of compliance I used the word obedience. I got such a negative reaction from teachers and parents that I had to change the name of the quality from obedience to compliance. It seemed as if obedience was too strong a word and parents and teachers were offended by it. I still don’t think that there is anything wrong with the word obedience. Thirty years ago we demanded obedience from children.  Today we can’t even use the word, and obedience turns out to be the last thing we get from children. Well, what is the definition of compliance? Compliance is when a person does what he is told, when he is told to do it, with a good attitude. And willfulness is the opposite of the character quality of compliance.

Why is it so hard to get children to be compliant with the instructions of an adult? It is the natural tendency of children to want to explore and do things, their natural curiosity is always at work and they believe at a young age that they can do and say just about anything that they want. A parent’s first job is to teach their children the word NO. If children don’t understand what they can and cannot do, and they don’t understand the word NO they will draw the conclusion at a very young age that they can do anything they want. Believe it or not children will draw this conclusion at about the age of two. This is one of the reasons why everyone talks about the terrible two’s. Children are starting to walk and  have a natural curiosity, and want to explore just about everything, like a hot stove, or electric outlets. They want to pull on the dogs ears, or change the channel on the TV set in the middle of a show, or go into the cabinet under the sink and play with the Drano. If children don’t understand the word NO, and more importantly, if they are not corrected for their non-compliance they will begin to believe that there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. Then suddenly mom or dad get to the point that they are fed up with their children’s behavior and they start to take things away, or start to scream the word NO which leads to the child crying and throwing a temper tantrum.

I am not sure where adults got the idea that they can rationalize with a two year old and truly make that child understand their adult reasoning. The truth of the matter is they can’t. But these same children enter pre school and kindergarten and are behavior problems for the teacher from the get go. These children can’t share, stay in their seat, follow directions, or take turns. When they are disciplined for non compliance they scream and carry on like someone is cutting off their right arm. The teacher then begins to believe that there is something medically wrong with these children, like they must have ADHD, or ODD. In reality the children were just never taught the meaning of one little word, NO.

The holidays can be a rough time for a dad especially if he is divorced, it can be a tough time even if you’re married. The economy right now is so horrendous and money is so tight that financial worries can place an unbearable amount of pressure on a family especially during the holiday season. Some families can just about pay their bills. Parents want to make the Easter and Passover season fun for their kids, but unfortunately fun during this time of year means that extra money has to be spent on all kinds of food, clothes, and presents. When a dad just doesn’t have the money he can begin to think that he isn’t doing his job by providing for his family. If a dad is divorced he can be really broke, and he can turn into the bad guy by not being able to provide the little extras that his children are looking for during the holiday season.

 As a dad myself I want to provide those extras but really what I really want is I just want my kids to be with me. Well, my kids are with me right now. My younger daughter Grace is sleeping and my oldest daughter Sarah will be here later this morning. My oldest daughter just found a job. She is 17 and was dying to work in order to make extra money. She got hired on Friday at a pizza parlor and she couldn’t be happier. Friday was Good Friday; well it really was a Good Friday. Today is going to be a good Sunday too. This week is going to be a good week, and March is going to be a good month.

 You see I can’t cry in my beer, not anymore. There are too many good things that are happening to me right now. Oh, there will be some not so good things that will happen to me in the future I’m sure, but in reality the good will out weigh the bad. I just have to convince myself of it, and thank God for what I do have, and for the blessings that he has bestowed on me and my family. So on this Easter Sunday my kids are with me and life is good.

Lou Dobbs said that he was sorry about calling Governor Eliot Spitzer an idiot. Sincerely. As for ripping the New York Democrat as arrogant, spineless and “a spoiled rich kid brat,” the host of CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” stands by those nationally broadcast broadsides.

Yeah, Eliot Spitzer was a rich kid, and that might have made him feel superior. Maybe his genius IQ made him feel superior and that’s why he turned out to be so self-righteous, so argumentative, and have an insatiable desire to prove that everyone is wrong and he was the only one who was right.

I do know that kids who are raised in environments where they are either always wrong, or always right end up having a faulty perception of themselves and the world around them. I also believe that permissive parenting can be at the root of many of the problems that we have in society today. Too often children are placed on such a high pedestal by their parents and then they become the king or queen of the household, and their parents believe they can do no wrong. Eventually they believe they can do no wrong.

In reality it’s the desire of the parents to give their children everything they want, because they love their children so much, and because it’s a way for people to express their love for their children, that can in the end create a very spoiled child. I also believe that giving all kinds of freedoms and all kinds of choices to children causes children to develop an absolute lack of self control in them which they will carry into their adult lives. This type of parenting has become endemic in our society today. It is typefied by parents who constantly rationalize with their children, try to cajole their children, but in the end allow them to decide almost everything for themselves. You will see young girls in elementary school wearing tank tops, and even sandals to school in the middle of the winter, you will see a mom making three different things for dinner, you will see you will see three siblings watching three different TV shows on three different TV’s because they all have chosen to watch something different, you will see children coming to school without their homework done, because their parents have allowed them to choose to do something other than their homework, you will see kids whining and screaming in a store, and the parent’s response is something like, “Honey, what do you want to do?” Don’t get me wrong. The parents are probably very well intentioned, but the end result of giving everything, every desire of your child’s heart, whether it is bought for them or allowed for them, will in the end produce an adult who thinks he or she can have anything and do anything.

Eliot Spitzer is rich and he got that way because of his parents. Some people believe that money can right all wrongs, and that it takes the place of good parenting. An Ivy League education doesn’t mean that you can say and do as you please. An Ivy League education means that you have an Ivy League Education. It means that you get an Ivy League job with all of the benefits and responsibilities that go along with it. Once you combine a millionaire mentality with the thoughts that your ideas are the only ideas, that’s when you produce an Eliot Spitzer, a spoiled rich kid who was placed on such a high pedestal by his parents that it created in him the belief that the world was all wrong and he was all right.

Eliot Spitzer rose up through the ranks as a lawyer, and became the New York State Attorney General. He was ultimately elected the Governor of the State of New York. But Eliot Spitzer did not know how to use his position of power for the good of the group. It turned out inside his head, his ego was raging, and he was almost becoming drunk on his power. From day one in the governor’s mansion, it became my way or the highway. Again, he acted like a spoiled brat.

Eliot Spitzer believed that he was above the law. He thought that he could get way with illegal and immoral acts because he was placed on the highest pedestal that the State of New York had to offer; the governorship. His position as governor and as a public figure required him to conduct his life as a model for all to see. And he looked the part. He had an Ivy League education, money, and a pretty good pedigree. We have learned though, that there was one crucial thing missing. Unfortunately he lacked the self control and the character to live up to the standards that the job demanded. I agree with Lou Dobbs. I agree that Eliot Spitzer is a spoiled, arrogant, spineless, rich kid brat, but I won’t apologize for stating that Eliot Spitzer is really a true idiot.

John Fiocco Jr., who was a freshman at The College of New Jersey two years ago, was last seen alive on March 25, 2006 in his dorm room after returning from an off-campus party where he was said to have been drinking.  Soon after, some of his blood was found on a trash compactor, and then police went to a landfill in Bucks County, PA to search for his body, which they subsequently found.  No final determination was ever made as to how this young man died- if it was a homicide or an accident.

Now, 2 years later, the boy’s parents have filed a wrongful death suit against the College of New Jersey alleging that the College was negligent in that the trash compacting system was not secured, which resulted in their son’s death.

I find it hard to understand how the college could be held liable for this young man’s death. There are laws that state that some things are an attractive nuisance, such as a swimming pool, and if someone falls in and drowns, the homeowners could be held liable. But, I fail to see how a trash compactor could be considered an attractive nuisance.  I empathize with the parents, and if my  daughter’s body were ever discovered in a landfill in Pennsylvania, that would be a living nightmare.  I just do not understand this lawsuit.  If this boy was murdered, then there is no way that the college could be negligent, because obviously the trash compactor had nothing to do with his death.  The compactor was just the means the killer used to dispose the body.  If the boy was alive and somehow wandered over to the trash compactor and fell into it accidentally, then what most likely caused his death was his own impaired judgment, possbily caused by his own drinking.  Suing the college for negligence seems to put the blame for this tragedy on the wrong party.

The drinking age is 21 years old in New Jersey. Now everyone know that college kids, and even high school kids are involved in underage drinking. This young man was drinking off campus, so the college certainly didn’t provide him with alcohol; he got it  and drank it on his own. Intoxicated people have been known to get lost, sleep on park benches, and have car accidents that kill themselves and others. If he drove his car into a telephone poll and got killed would the college be liable? Intoxicated people have a bad habit of always being somewhere that they shouldn’t be, and sometimes results in dire consequences.

If this young man’s death was an accident brought on by drinking, there is only one person responsible for this, as tragic as it might seem, and that is this young man. Just because a door is left open doesn’t mean that you have to walk through it. Kids are taught all the time to watch out for cars, to be careful when they are swimming in the ocean, to drive slowly, and surely not to drink and drive. Alcohol can numb the senses, and retard a person’s judgment. Unfortunately this young man may have walked through an open door that led to his death. Is the college to blame? I think not.

March 3, 2008

 Dear Grace:

 I am sorry that I have been such a poor example to you recently. I have made a few mistakes and I am asking for your forgiveness. I have already spoken to you and I do know that you forgive me, but I want to write this down so I don’t forget. What you think of me means everything and I don’t want you to have a bad opinion of me. Some of the mistakes that I have made I am even too embarrassed to write about and wouldn’t want the readers of this letter to think badly of me, that’s how serious I am about my own behavior.

 I want you to be proud of me as your dad, and I will see to it that you are by the changes that I will make in my own behavior. As time goes on I want us to experience mutual pride for each other, and I believe that we will both learn from one another. I want you to tell me when I am doing something, that bothers you and I will do my best to stop doing it. You can bet that I will tell you, that to me what this relationship is all about. I have said it before, and I will say it again; you are my best friend.

I Love You Dad

March 3, 2008

Dear Sarah:

I am sorry for all the trouble that you have had in school this past week I know things must have been awfully tough on you. I am glad that you called me up on Friday to get you out of school. I wouldn’t want you to be in an uncomfortable situation. I certainly wouldn’t want you to get into a fight or get hurt. I need you to really understand how much you are loved, by me and by your mother. We both love who you  as a person and want the very best for you. Your problem came in when you started kissing a boy at a party about a month ago, not knowing that the boy was dating another girl. I know that if you had all the facts you wouldn’t have done that, but that’s hard to explain to someone who is so angry that all they want to do is beat you up. Understand something, love can never wait to give, and lust can never wait to get. The appealing emotions that occur when you are physically involved with someone are very fleeting and they are just not worth experiencing. I really want you to learn from this experience. Life can be kind to us at times, but it also can be very cruel. Sometimes we can do something that produces life long consequences. Some decisions in life that we make don’t allow us to have a second chance. I love who you are very much. Please start using your head, and don’t place yourself in a compromising situation like this again.

I Love You

Dad