I'm never going to know the answer to that as I don't know their family background, much about their school or their community but I certainly was left wondering about the differences. The group that was not well behaved seemed to be cursed with the negative generalities of the millennial generation. They wanted more no matter what was given to them and didn't have any appreciation for what they were given, they had a very short attention span (they asked if there was a movie they could watch during lunch...which was 20 minutes!) and they had no respect for others around them (we received complaints about their noise levels).
Obviously the alarm bells starting ringing for me since I have yet to go through this with my kids and this left me scared! My oldest is 4 years old which means I have about another 7 or 8 years before I get to this stage. My mom often says that she didn't find the teenage years with my siblings and I all that bad. Must remember to pick her brain immediately to find out how this was accomplished!
Eight years is a long way away and so I have lots of time to teach my kids and to model the behaviour that will get them to be respectful, appreciative, courteous and pleasant. But I know they are always watching and I know that there are teachable moments relating to this issue every single day. Sigh. Parenting is a bit of a tough gig, right? Ha - as if this is news to anyone reading! Its hard to picture my two little bundles of sweetness turning into grumpy, gangly tweens and teens but I know it will happen.
Even if your kids are just babies, do you ever find yourself thinking about their tween or teenage years and how you will handle those challenges? I don't think about it a lot, but will take my recent experience as a reminder to continue to parent in a way that will help my kids be people that both they and my husband and I can be proud of.
