Because it's relevant.

So I meant to include in my last post about the value of things, but I completely forgot about it until now, so here we go.

I teach swim lessons at my local YMCA. I've been working there for more than a year now, and every day I see these kids ages 3-12 who give me these hilarious and adorable stories to tell. Lately, though, I've been noticing a lot of sassy and spoiled kids. As a kid, I remember being terrified if an adult became angry with me! Now I have kids in my class who look at me and deliberately do the opposite of what I told them to do just to piss me off, I swear to God. Someday, one of them is just going to give me the finger and do a backflip into the water. Kids these days...

When I used to take swim lessons at the same ol' Y with my little brother, my mother would take us down to Target to buy a little toy every time we moved up a class. Lemme tell you, this was never an easy feat! I remember being flipped around my instructor's arm in front of the whole class because I was just so damn scared to do it by myself. Anything for a new box of LEGOs. Anything.

I thought for sure that all of the parents in the world had just stopped doing this. All I hear nowadays is "My mommy says if I jump in the water, I get a phone!" WHAT. STOP. LITTLE CHILD, YOU ARE SEVEN. Unless they mean this, in which case, way to go parents:

They probably don't even sell these anymore. The shame...

So I was sitting in the office one day, just munching on my millionth Tootsie Roll of the day, when a little girl rushes in with her  instructor (rushing because everything -- the water, the air, the souls of some of the children -- are ice cold), who gives her a high-five and a mini Tootsie Roll. This girl's face just LIT UP. I mean who knows, maybe she's never ever had a Tootsie Roll in her life. The kid ran outside to her mother, to whom my co-worker explained that she had just jumped into the water by herself at the deep end for the first time ever. Now the mother's face lit up, and she started rushing her kid into the locker room, saying, "I'm so proud of you! Ok, let's get you dressed so we can buy you a WHOLE SODA." Whoa. Slow down there. A WHOLE soda? Not like, just a little sip or anything? BEST DAY EVER. The kid looked like she was going to explode. All of a sudden, I felt like the spoiled little kid (didn't stop me from eating 5,000,000,00 more Tootsie Rolls though).

To all those people out there who think that not giving a child everything he/she wants is a crime, go on raising your little army of Dudley Dursleys, not letting them appreciate the simple things in life. See if I care. Actually, I might, since I might end up teaching them in my next class. 

Why? Because it's relevant. Kind of.