What ever happened to respect?

Wow, so I have a rant to go on today. Yesterday was 4th of July, and we spent a mostly lovely day, first at our neighbor's house, they have a pool, and they are so generous! Delicious food, swimming for a couple of hours, and just generally being neighborly. It was really wonderful. Then we went to a fireworks show and family style picnic at the beach with another friend and her two children. We left about 4:30pm, fireworks were scheduled for 9:30pm... the event had two giant jumper slide things for kids, it was held at a lagoon (but the water was off limits [?!]) and there were crafts, Mad Science shows, a kids parade, live music, just a nicely planned event. Here's where the rant starts...

Why do people think they are entitled? I was standing near one of the giant inflatable slide things (a pirate ship being mauled by a giant squid nonetheless) and I had three kids with me... 4 1/2, 5 and 6 1/2. I saw more parents there cutting in the line with their kids (often the kids were 9-12), shoving other people, their kids would run over other kids, I even had to tell a couple of kids "hey, no cutting the line, all of these people are waiting their turns." Upon that I was often given dirty looks, sometimes ignored, and once in a while looked at like I had horns growing out of my head, but the kid would go to the back of the line so hey, my job was done. Then there were these two girls. I had to walk behind one of them to go around the inflatable and I said "excuse me." She looked right at me and didn't move. I was going behind her, not trying to cut the line! So I bumped her, because I was moving... she gave me a snotty look, then tugged on her friend's arm and said "she just HIT me!" and pointed at me. I looked at her and said "you should have moved when I said excuse me." So she is making faces at me and then she says "I'm going to go tell my mom!" I told her "sure, bring your mom over, I'd like to have a talk with her about YOUR attitude." She was flabbergasted and her friend said "come on, let's get your mom..." I was done, so I was standing in the other line with my three and she walks up with her friend and her mom and points at me and says "she HIT me!" I look at her mom who was looking for someone to blame for all this and I explained I walked BEHIND her daughter who didn't move when I said excuse me and I bumped her, and her daughter really needs to look out for the smaller kids in this area since she is too old to be over there anyway, and her daughter said "you didn't say anything to me, you just hit me, mom she's LYING." So her mom says "just forget it, just forget it" and they start to walk away and I hear the mom say "stay away from them, she's just MEAN." Oh man, I was mad. Later that SAME girl came running through the playground area and knocked my friend's three year old down (in the kiddie play area, where there were a bunch of pre-teens playing on the play equipment, playing tag). She barely stopped, and said "oh, he's okay..." and kept running.

Okay, you all know me. You know I am not the curmudgeonly type (normally!), but I want to know why kids in more affluent areas have this sense of entitlement. Like that pre-teen girl who thought she was on the same level as me, and her mom didn't change that. If I heard one of my kids talking to a grown-up (any grown-up) that way there would be big trouble for my kids! HOW DARE that girl think she can tattle on me, and then her mom let her believe she was right about it. What happened to respect? Not only was she disrespectful to me, so was her mother. I think we are doing a terrible disservice to our kids by believing that disresepect equals self confidence in our kids. It's one thing to stand up for what you think, it's a whole other thing to perpetuate the lie your kid is telling you. And that mom should have had some control. The problem is there is very little by way of control in the more affluent areas. Parents don't control their kids, the nannies don't control the kids, the rules don't exist. This girl wasn't the only example of this I encountered. There was a boy who kept pushing the smaller kids who was totally out of control at the slides. He ignored every adult there, and there was no adult there responsible for him. I was the only one who confronted him, and I had to warn the three with me to beware of him, he was out of control. There was a dad with two boys, probably about Thomas' age, who kept cutting the line with his boys. How do you tell an adult over and over that he's cutting the line. I said something to him once, and he said "my boy will throw a tantrum if he has to wait this long [?!... and your point?]." Hmm, yep, nice environment...

I have to say the fireworks were pretty, and the rain of fire that came with them was, well, nothing I had ever seen before... scary to me, but no one else seemed bothered. Kids were asleep in the car within minutes, and we are all wiped out today.

OH, last thing about respect... so we get home about 11, everyone goes to bed by midnight. About that time, this HUGE jerk who lives behind us decides it is a good time to launch his super loud, illegal skyrockets OVER OUR HOUSE. Okay, I'll give you one, but two more after that and I went to the backyard and screamed "stop it! Next one I am calling the cops!" So, two more later... I call the cops, and I go out back and turn my hose on full blast over the fence. Not sure if the message got through, but I didn't hear any after that. Man, that guy drives me nuts. Fireworks are completely illegal in the city we live in. Seriously, what are you teaching your kids with your flagrant and drunken abuse of the law.

...end of rant, thanks for listening.