Parenting Tips: Raising A Rude Child

Catherine Seipp writes about an incident that made her pause. A hateful, liberal, "Bash Bush" moment caused her to think that some parents are really messing up their children:

My sister has a new project that involves buying me various t-shirts she thinks express my bossy inner personality. Recently she got me one that says, "Stupidity Is Not a Crime, So You're Free to Go."

Now I don't normally wear t-shirts with slogans on them outside the house. Too corny, like putting emoticons or "LOL" in email. But this shirt is nicely cut and since I hate shopping, lately I've been running out of clothes. So not long ago I threw it on when I dashed out for a quick lunch and a movie.

There I was, eating a hotdog in the sunshine at an outdoor L.A. mall, when a mother passing by with a small child smiled, hesitated for a moment, and then volunteered: "I'd like to send that shirt to our president!"

"Well," I said pleasantly, "I wouldn't, I guess, since I voted for him." (I wish I'd thought to add perkily, "I'd like to send it to Cindy Sheehan, though!" but my mind was in a hotdog-induced funk.)

"Oh..." she said, flabbergasted.

"That's OK," I added. "But you should know that not everyone is on the same side politically."

At this point, her son, about four years old, began a pantomime of stomping on ants as he yelled, "Stomp Bush! Stomp Bush! Stomp Bush!" Evidently he'd been trained to do this, like an organ grinder's monkey, whenever the word "president" is mentioned.

Ouch. Let's hope most parents are doing better than this.

Here's the full article.