Refusing To Instill An Obedience Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

A belligerent disposition,
Does not overnight occur or begin.
It has been fostered and condoned in doses.
And began as something noticed,
Regarded as cute!
Especially bestowed upon 'precious' and precocious...
Sweet and adorable manipulative children!

'You are too strict on your children.
All children that age display stubborn independence.'

~I don't consider talking back, throwing tantrums...
In a public display to get their way.
I will spoil them to a certain point.
But a listening to me will be done!
And,
They 'will' obey!
How you raise 'your' children...
Is not how mine will be raised.
In other words...
You stay out of this! ~

Refusing to instill an obedience,
That is respectfully applied...
Undenied.
Without a firm authority...
And at times felt on one's backside,
Can lead to an expensive lifelong embarrassment.

And making attempts to calm unruly kids...
Undisciplined by parents who appear in schools,
To defend what they did...
Ultimately finds someone sobbing in tears,
When a sentence to spend time behind bars...
Is given to a 'child' to sit for years in a prison.
For acts of mugging or threatening with weapons to rob!
If in fact,
Not for violent attacks that left behind someone murdered.