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By Dr. Tim Riordan
It was raining outside, so my
physical education class had to stay in the gym and go through a list of
exercises. This was disappointing to a group of eighth graders, but since we
could not control the weather, we simply made the best of it. I completed my
assigned routine, and I stood in front of the window staring out at the rain.
Suddenly, I felt a blinding pain as my body slammed against the wall. At first,
I didn’t know what had happened as I felt like my backside was on fire. When I
recovered from the shock, I turned and saw the coach standing there with his
paddle, and he had this look of smug superiority on his face.
“What was that for?” I said in
shock while trying to keep from embarrassing myself by allowing tears to roll
down my cheeks.
“You’re supposed to be completing
your exercises – not staring out the window,” the coach replied in a huff.
“I did complete my exercises,” I
retorted with disdain in my voice.
I was royally ticked off. That
coach had crossed the line. He spanked me for no good reason, and now he was
going to get it. He did not even apologize, but rather, he just turned and
walked away. My mom was going to hear about this, and she was going to eat him
for lunch.
I went home in triumph knowing
that my mother would surely be on my side this time. That coach had spanked me
hard, and I had done nothing wrong. When I arrived home that day, I unloaded on
my mom knowing she would be enraged.
My mother calmly replied, “I bet
you have gotten away with things before that probably deserved a spanking. This
one can just count for one you should have gotten before.”
I could not believe it. My mother
was siding with the coach. He had practically abused me, and I was totally
innocent. I was so angry at my mother for not coming to my defense. What I did not
realize at the time was that she was giving me a very important lesson: always
respect authority.
I see authority undermined all
the time by parents, so they should not be surprised when their child
eventually grows up to disregard the law, disrespect their teachers, and
dishonor their parents. For example, when a child does poorly in school, the
parent sides with the child and blames the teacher. Now, it may be true that
sometimes the teacher is at fault, but the parent is doing a great disservice
to his or her child when the teacher is blamed in the presence of the child. My
smart mother knew that if she criticized the coach to me, I would no longer
respect him as an authority in my life. This disrespect could slowly be
channeled to other authority figures in my life. My mother may have called the
coach when I was not around and given him a piece of her mind, but I never knew
about it if she did.
Parents, beware. Always look for
ways to support the authority figures in your child’s life. If you have to
correct these authorities or criticize them, contact the person personally without letting
your child know you are doing so. Leading your child to respect authority will
help him or her avoid all manner of heartache in the future.
What are your thoughts about
helping children respect authority? Will you share your experiences below and
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