Arakin 4 kurs new 001 176. indd

put in check
.
If I’m 
sounding a bit judgmental
, I assure you I am not alone in 
my judgment. Remember that couple that was kicked off an AirTran 
flight for being unable to control their 3-year-old back in 2007? The 
child threw a tantrum, refused to get in her sit and delayed the flight 
by 15 minutes.
Responding to complaints about crying babies keeping people 
awake, Malaysia Airlines decided to ban infants from first class in 
some of its flights.
I don’t know about you but I would gladly support an airline or 
restaurant that didn’t make someone else’s yelling, screaming, kicking 
offspring my problem.
Children are wonderful, but they are not 
the center of the uni-
verse
. The sooner their parents make them understand that, the 
better off we all will be.
This is the part of child-rearing people don’t like to discuss, because 
socially, it’s not OK to dislike kids. The ugly truth is it’s 
the spineless 
parents
who parade their undisciplined children around like royalty 
that make people dislike kids.
I covered education for years and one of the biggest complains from 
teachers was about the amount of time they spent disciplining the stu-
dents. Their threats were empty because parents 
sided with
their kids.
Spanking is not a cure, and should not be the first resort, but I 
don’t think it should automatically 
be taken off the table
when deal-
ing with small kids. We’re so preoccupied with protecting children 
from disappointment and discomfort that we’re inadvertently excus-
ing them from growing up.
As a parent I can empathize with how difficult raising children can 
be. There are challenges, especially within the framework of divorce, 
when parental guilt can sometimes