The Worsening of Child Behavior

Child behavior is worse today than it was ten years ago.

The definition of behavior according to oxford dictionary is the manner in which one acts or conducts oneself especially in the presence of other people. In addition to that, behavior is the way one responds to a situation. Therefore, child behavior would mean the way a child conducts himself or herself while relating with other people or the way they react to situations.

As a general observation, ten years ago, children were better behaved especially towards their elders and parents than they are in these days. For instance in the African community where I come from, children ten years ago had a much higher sense respect, obedience and humility. Now it is no surprise to anyone to find children yelling at their parents while demanding to be bought for something. The level of obedience has also gone down. Now, it is common to find a child whose been sent do a certain task but the child deliberately refuse to obey

There are numerous television shows today showing unruly children whom the parents can no longer control or discipline. These children do not do what is right for them but instead do what they wish to do. A good reality show that can illustrate the behavior of these children is ‘World Strictest Parents’, a reality show that depicts how some teenagers have become so rebellious, hardened and with lack of remorse for anything wrong done.

Children exhibit bad behavior through lack of respect toward their own parents as well as other people. Children show a lack of respect to their parents by shouting at them when denied something, by calling them names such as stupid and ugly among other commonly used names. They use foul language in front of their parents without fear or shame. To other people, such children do not show respect by failing to observe basic etiquette such as giving way to an elderly person or even giving their sit in a full bus to a heavily pregnant mother who is standing. Elementary manners have vanished from the minds of many young children and teens.

One would beg the question as to why child behavior has deteriorated. In my opinion, I think the fact that parents rarely spank their children had attributed to children having loose morals. A wise adage says spare the rod and spoil the child. It is not a mystery that child behavior became worse after the abolishment of physical punishment system.

As I conclude, I am of the opinion that child behavior is worse now than ten years ago, and it is likely to keep getting worse if parents and teachers in school do not take a stern action against their children. I would advocate that they nip the problem in the bud before it too late to reform a rotting society of ill mannered children.