As human beings age we mature physically as we move from childhood to adulthood. This is a well known fact in our society. Along with this physical maturation, we expect a certain amount of mental and emotional maturity. Because of an experience I recently had I started thinking about the maturity levels in adults.
I had just picked up some groceries for my family from the local grocery store and I had just reached my car when a little ways away in the parking lot I saw something. A father and his two young sons had just arrived at the grocery store and were preparing to go shopping. The younger son had a small bag of candy with him. The dad saw that he was going to carry the bag into the store and instead of calmly explaining to his son that that was a bad idea because it would appear as if they were shop lifting, he flew off the handle and started chewing his son out.
The mistake was tiny, and the father lost the opportunity to teach his son a small lesson. Instead of receiving that lesson and bonding with his father, the dad made it a negative experience that the son will only hate his dad for.
But other than the lost lesson, it made me question adult maturity. How can a man who has seen many decades of life be so childish with his own son? Maybe that question is the answer. Maybe the decades have made him tired, maybe he just had a rough day and was losing patience with a potentially difficult child. These are all valid points. But there are no excuses in parenting, just because you feel bad one day does not give you the right to mistreat your child. That is just my personal opinion, and it makes you wonder if people are growing up in a fashion that makes us a better society, or if it is a self destructive habit.
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