Karen and I went out to eat this evening, and (it being Mother's Day) the restaurant was packed full of families, many of which included children behaving in a fashion my brother and I would never have dared behave.

For example, at one table near us, a young boy — not yet a year old, by the looks of it — had a helium-filled balloon which his older sister apparently coveted greatly. She tried to take it from him, but he clung tightly to the ribbon, thwarting her; to show her displeasure, she grabbed the ribbon in two places and began to throttle him with it. (This girl was really yanking with all her might, and this looked to be the sturdy, unyielding 1/4-inch curling ribbon commonly used as balloon lanyards.)

One would think that a parent, upon seeing this, would be somewhat alarmed, and would (at the very least) speak sternly to the murderous offspring. But no, the mother of this serial-killer-in-training merely said in a sweet voice, "Now, honey, you shouldn't do that." It was obviously no deterrent, for less than five minutes later, the girl was at it again, nearly toppling the infant's high chair to the floor as she hauled and yanked upon the brightly colored garotte. Rather than punishing her, her parents' solution was to give her the balloon and ask the server to bring a second balloon for the boy, who naturally was now squalling at the top of his lungs.

Parenting styles have obviously changed over the years. Had I, as a small child, been foolish enough to treat my younger brother that way even once, there would never have been a second time (and I certainly would not have been guerdoned with the object of my avarice). I shudder to think what kind of person this girl will grow into, having been rewarded for sociopathic behavior in her childhood.