The three R's: Respect, Responsibility, and Resourcefulness are just not taught/emphasized enough in today's society....

imvhoSmileWavy

Why should they be? They are not practiced by pretty much any real leader in society, so why listen when they prattle on?

We parents who care about people other than just ourselves actually do teach those things to our kids. But the countervailing message from outside is very strong. As a soccer coach, I told the parents that I didn't care how talented their kids were. I only cared how much effort they gave in practice. Those that gave effort would be rewarded with playing time. Regardless of skill level. Those who were loafers or problem-causers would spend more time on the sidelines, "supporting their teammates". As you can imagine, this policy did not sit well. And sometimes with my wife, as my daughter would sometimes loaf in practice. Even after I told her that more would be expected, because she was the coach's daughter. "That's not fair!" Yup. It's not. But that's life, sweetheart. Get used to it.

Our boy at 4 years old wanted a root beer. He only gets root beer on special occasions so rather than asking directly if he could have a root beer he asked if we could have some friends over for a LAN party. I set it up and after the party started he asked if he could have his root beer. I asked him if that is why he wanted the party, to get a root beer, and he told me that indeed that was the reason. Of course we all had fun but he saw a way to get what he wanted and worked back from there.

By the way, he is now up to $17 one quarter at a time. It was only $12 a few days ago.