Shocking!

Considering my young age (ha ha yeah right) I feel like I have seen a lot. I have been witness to several births, as well as watched older loved ones fade into dementia or suffer through illness until they finally found peace in death. I have three kids, which means I have been peed on, pooped on, thrown up on, and suffered through the inevitable grocery store meltdown. As a pre-teen I had a huge love of horror flicks so I watched everything from Ammityville to the Omen, which is probably why I am still afraid of the dark. My reason for stating all of the above is to explain that there are few things that truly shock me. However, at Disneyland this past week, I was definitely dumbfounded. I saw a precious little boy, maybe 2 or 3 years old, in the midst of a meltdown. This, sadly, is commonplace in my home so it wasn't too surprising. Not until the child started beating the crap out of his mother. Seriously. I felt bad but I couldn't help but stare. This little pipsqueak was punching his mom in the face and pulling her hair out of its neat little blond bun. All while the very patient mommy remained quiet, I assume waiting for the child to calm down. I was both shocked and saddened. I know that there are a bazillion different parenting techniques out there and my kids are far from perfect so I know I shouldn't judge people but REALLY? Since when is it okay for our kids to beat up on us? I admire her patience but am truly saddened if she believes that being terrorized by her kid is acceptable. The bigger question for me is when did we stop teaching our kids to respect? Respect parents, adults, friends, fellow human beings. It feels like this is a rare thing to find, which is really sad to me and makes me want to shelter my kids even more. I will say that I have several friends with amazing and kind children, but it is depressing to me how rare that is. Is it wrong to teach our kids politeness, kindness, respect, and caring for others? Are we not teaching it because we aren't doing it ourselves? I feel like when things are tough in parenting, more often people throw in the towel and lower their expectations for their kids. But no one ever said parenting was easy, did they?