Crisis of Courage

We have all seen it many times. It happens way too often. We may have even succumbed to it ourselves. A young child standing in an aisle in Target, or Walmart, or Toys-R-Us, red faced, screaming at the top of his lungs, stomping his feet, demanding the new Paw Patrol toy, or a bag of Skittles, and the parents give him what he wants to quiet him down, choosing to give into his fit of anger to avoid an embarrassing public scene. They chose the easy way out, the short-term solution.

But what happens when you reward bad behavior? You get more of it, not less. Every time that child wants something, he will throw a fit because he knows that is the best way to get his parents to give him what he wants. The parents didn’t demand that the child behaves properly and respectfully to get the toy; they didn’t require that the child performs chores to get the candy, the parents used the toy to stop him from acting out, and they will wake up one day with a child who throws fit after fit after fit. It’s not the child’s fault, it’s the parents fault. They trained him that way. When we chose quiet over peace, we become slaves to the empty drums.