What positive behaviours are we giving our kids?

I think, as a parent of grown children that if you give your child respect you will get respect back. My children were bought up to be respectful of themselves, family, friends and property and they achieved good lives for themselves. I'm not saying that my children were perfect, they had thier moments of rebellion, but the important thing was that they were not unruly or rude. Both thier father and me worked but this was only possible because my sister looked after the children. We gave them a certain amount of independance but boundries were set, if they didn't stick to the boundries they were punished. I think that some of todays parents are scared of thier children and teachers are not allowed to disipline them so they are able to 'run amok'.

Kids are a lot ruder and inconsiderate than they were in my parents generation. I think some of it has to do with the way they are being raised. We live in a society where you seem to be judged by what materialistic things you have, making us work more than ever and leaving a generation of young minds to fend for themselves. It's a sad state of affairs, especially when you consider that this is the next generation of leaders. My hubby and I have worked it out so our kids are always with us or their grandparents, however we are fortunate, there are millions of parents out there who are not so lucky.