Spare the rod. . .

This week was cub scout camp, which meant than do to my over developed sense of obligation and duty, I had to volunteer to be a walker. I waited until very late hoping that all the spots would have been filled already, but when I asked, she said, "Yes! We really need someone for Thursday!" Damn. So I got to walk with Ethan, John Austin, and Austin. Which was confusing to say the least. The big problem was that. . .well. . .you know Ethan, right? Well, he was the best behaved of the three. Yeah. John Austin has a brother and a sister, and every week at church I sit a wonder how their parents are apparently raising them without ANY discipline whatsoever. They are TERRIBLE. They run all over the place and do what ever they want, and if their parents or grandparents say anything, the kids smack them. Seriously, I've seen it. The authority figure in question then decides that is good behavior to ignore. I don't think so! My child would be unable to sit for a while in that situation! I'm not a big fan of the old fashioned spanking, but there's a time and a place, ya know? And Austin, I've never actually seen at church, but he's apparently being raised by his Grandmother. And kids raise by grandma are always brats. This kid is 9 and has a cell phone. In general these guys weren't that bad, except for their tendency to wander off without asking first. So I'd turn around and they would be gone. Finally one time after I had to send Ethan down the hiking trail to find them after 5 minutes, he brought them back and John Austin told me Austin said they could go. I said, "Is Austin an adult? Is he in charge?" "No," was the reply, so I told him from now on he needed to ask an adult for permission. Then I gave Austin quite a ribbing. I told him he wasn't allowed to wander off without permission, I had no idea where they were and they could of gotten hurt and I wouldn't even know where to look for them, and so on and so forth. I made him LOOK at me and say he understood. It was short and to the point. I didn't even yell. But as I was walking away I heard him say in his hurt voice, "She's mean." Oh, Austin my boy, you have NO idea.