Are you one of these parents?

The other day shopping somewhere, we were entertained by a parent and child.  The kid, if you can call her that was about 12 years old, as tall as the mom and could stand to lose half her body weight, was throwing a loud obnoxious fit. Screaming and yelling at her mom, stomping around saying what she wanted and didn't want.  The mom was saying "now now don't be like this"  Our 30 year old daughter said to my wife rather loudly, "Just smack her" Of course smacking the brat is considered abuse, but if someone would have made this kid behave when she was 2 or 3, she might be more adorable today. We all felt sorry for the mom, but mostly just wanted them to go away.
Are you one of those patents? no of course not, but some of you are.
Lets see hows it go, "spare the whip spoil the child"  no no it's "Spare the rod" that's it.

This comes from a Biblical proverb (Prov 13:24): "He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently."

This little side show reminded us of  one afternoon when our daughter was about  1 or 3, we were in a Pay-Less store and she didn't get her way so she carefully laid down in the aisle (months earlier she had thrown herself down getting a painful bump on the head, so now she carefully laid down) and began screaming and thrashing her arms and legs.  It was actually pretty funny to watch, and totally appropriate for a toddler. Anyway her mom and I ignored her (to the horror of onlookers) and walked out of sight to the next aisle, in moments the hissy fit stopped, she got up off the floor and hurriedly went looking for us. When she found us we loudly (for the audience) acknowledged her better behavior and went about our shopping. 

beat me with a stick and see who loses

Stray dog adopts our neighborhood

Reports of dog sightings have been filtering in to our house. At sun up we are awakened by howling, I spot a coyote sized dog with a distinctive German Shepard look in our upper driveway. My daughter says she spotted a dog hiding when she came home at midnight. We don't own a dog and our two cats have no doggy friends so when I see the stray outside my office window I bang on the glass hoping to scare it away. I see it turn the corner back into our yard so I walk outside and find it cowering under the car.  On my approach it bolts up the road into a neighbors yard.  That afternoon talking with neighbors, all who have spotted it, I realized the dog had been around for several days, but none of the adults have been able to approach it. The two youngest kids (13 and 9) take it upon themselves to befriend the stray and immediately are successful. Using typical children sounds and doggy treats they  were able to call it over, pet it and soon place a rope around Frisky's neck, (of course they named it) When I approached  Frisky snapped and growled at me while retreating between my sons legs.  Soon enough all of us were able to gather around, but Frisky remained cautious of adults and sought the children for protection.  I have twice driven the local area looking for lost dog signs, I've also checked Craigs List and the lost dog list at the county shelter web site.  Now what?