Respect

What ever happened to Respect?  I'm serious.  People today are disrespectful all the darn time!  From the neighbors setting off high pitched noisy fireworks at 1am to the bratty kids of the neighborhood.  I remember when I was a kid, if I would have even thought of doing some of the things I've witnessed lately I would have been a goner.  My husband and I teach our kids to be respectful.  If they don't like it too bad.  I have told my oldest on more than one occasion that you don't have to like so and so but you can't be disrespectful.  I have gotten many complements on how well behaved and well mannered my kids are.  I always say thank you but really they don't get a choice.  Today we took the kids to the pool at our apartment.  We were all having fun and so were all the other people at the pool.  Then came some pre-teens and maybe one kid was maybe sixteen.  Then things started to go down hill.  They jump in, fine by me, and start rough housing.  After a few dirty looks from me and a few others they stopped.  Then they pull out a football, not a Nerf football, a pigskin.  These kids start tossing it around and still I could care less.  Then it gets out of hand.  They threw it in to a lady's head.  She asked them nicely to stop.  They called her a b%tch, she didn't hear but I did. Then they started again with the football and hit a lady in the back.  I could hear the thud from across the pool.  She told them to stop and they of course gave her attitude.  Here is the part where my mother would have pulled us out by our ears and we would not have been swimming for a few days.  But these kids were unattended.  Which is against the rules that are posted, along with no horseplay.  So of course everyone is getting annoyed and the mood changes.  The kids continue to play with their football in the pool and almost take out a few kids, then start jumping in trying to catch the football mid air.  They almost landed on my youngest.  SO of course my husband tells them : hey you guys need to be careful, you almost landed on my kid".  Instead of " oh I'm sorry" like we would have done as a kid, they say " no I didn't"  ummm excuse me what?!!! My husband says "yes you did!! and if you want to play football go do it outside of the pool.  You can play football in the grass but you can't swim in the grass"  The oldest kid says to my husband" that's what I was telling them"  well since I don't speak Russian I don't know what he was saying, but I find it hard to believe since they went back to causing havoc in two or three minutes.  So I start watching from the side of the pool, waiting for them to mess up.  I have decided that as soon as the mess up again I'm going to make the management come out and do something.  I never did though because someone must have complained.  One of our maintenance guys that is Russian comes out talk to them in Russian says something about trespassing and they get out. After about five minutes they all leave and everyone goes back to having fun.  It just makes me wonder  where are their parents?  I assume they are at work but they shouldn't be there with out parents.  Kids under 16 aren't allowed with out their parents.  I assume that the reason being to make sure stuff like this doesn't occur.  What makes these kids think its ok to be disrespectful to their "elders"? In this sense I miss the days when I was younger when stuff like this was not stood for.  When the kid outside, who I saw scratch my car with his bike, wouldn't lie to me and say I'm a liar and he didn't.  That alone makes me want to punish these kids like their parents obviously aren't.  Is it soo outlandish to expect kids to behave, and show some respect??  I've seen on Dr. Phil and a few other shows where kids say things like you have to earn respect.  As in their parents should earn it.  Ah NO!!!!  In my opinion they should be showing respect from the get go and can earn it when they do things like get a job or do chores.  What the hell did these kids do that they think THEY deserve respect for??   Where did peoples parenting skills go so off track that a generation of brats are being raised?    Oh and a side not on the kids at the pool today, last year they got kicked out of the pool for using foul language and hoping the fence to get in, since you have to have a key they give residents to use to get in.    Oh I could go on about this subject of rude and disrespectful kids for hours but I'll stop here.  hehehe