Maybe this is the problem with the kids these days...

There's a story in our local news that really drives me bonkers. It's a little story about a 4th grade boy who was so distracted by his video game that he forgot his lunch at home. Even after his mother had reminded him to remember it, little Everett was so involved in his game that he forgot to bring his lunch.

Everett's mom decided this would be a good opportunity to teach him a lesson and emailed the teacher to ask her not to give Everett any food for lunch and that he would eat at 2:30 when he got home. Everett had been given a good breakfast of cereal and fruit and juice.

To make a long story short, and you can read the story yourself if you'd like, the school defied Everett's mom and provided him with a cheese sandwich at school.

Is it just me that thinks this is ridiculous? How are parents supposed to have any control if the child knows that the rest of the world is going to pull the rug out from under his mom's feet all the time?

From my own observations with our school board (which is the neighboring school board to the one in the story), it seems to me that these children are so babied when they're in school that they will in no way be prepared for the consequences of the real world.

Take Bug, for example. Bug is so very behind with his school work. Now, it is partially my responsibility to keep up with his homework and partially his responsibility. I have to rely on his honesty and my correspondence with his teachers to see where he stands. After he got out of the hospital he had a ton of make-up work to do, obviously. We got through one packet, but evidently he still had more to do that I was unaware of.

Until I got an email from one of his teachers. Immediately I was on him and went through all of his papers and found some work he had not completed. Bug had to be back on the grindstone again with his work.

Now, he's not an easy kid to get to do work. He whines, he complains, he tells me how tired he is, he is overwhelmed with the work. And understandably so! It's a LOT of work.

However, when Bug is a grown up and he has some daunting task in front of him, I want him to be able to complete it!

His teachers (he has two) don't agree with me. They believe that they should just take what he has completed, average his grades and start fresh for the new trimester (which starts on Monday). I think he needs an incomplete and he needs to finish his work. He needs to know he can get through it and it's totally within his capabilities to complete the work.

They worry that his self-esteem is plummeting because the task is so daunting. I worry that he'll never believe in himself if he never completes any challenges.

What do you think? And hey, what do you think about the kid not getting lunch?