My apologies for the length of this post.

I'm driving my 5 yo to school this morning, & there's a group of 6 high school kids on the sidewalk walking to their busstop. I'm on the outside perimeter of my neighborhood, & I know these kids are from my subdivision.

There's a drainage ditch around the perimeter of the neighborhood that's always filled with water. There are always ducks, herons, and other assorted wildlife in it too. We live a half a mile from the Gulf of Mexico where everything drains to. One of the kids just casually chucks her empty soda bottle into the water and keeps on slowly walking and talking with the group.

I'm pissed, my son sees it and says 'hey mommy, that girl just threw her garbage in the water', to which I replied, 'yes, I saw that, and it wasn't a nice thing to do - mommy will pick it up after I drop you off'. My son says 'good, otherwise a duckie or a fishy will eat it and get a tummyache.' So, for the next five minutes we have a little conversation about how yucky it is to litter. I dropped him off, come back & fish the bottle out of the water (incidentally, there was a huge turtle about 3 ft away from me when I did it). The kids were standing about 50 yards away at the busstop, and I know they could see me.

I get back in the car & go to the bus stop, open my window, and (to the young girl who threw it) say 'excuse me, I saw you drop this bottle back there in the water, please don't do it again. There are a lot of animals that use that water, plus you could be fined by the police for doing something like that - would you like me to put it in a garbage can for you?' I was very nice and very non-confrontational - she comes back with 'I ain't throw no bottle', and she turns to her friends (away from me) and says, 'bitch better carry her a$$.' To which they all just laugh. Now I understand she's around her friends, and I'm a stranger confronting her at a busstop, so I just responded with a smile and 'ok, thank you very much.'

I wasn't about to get into an argument with a high school kid, but as I drove away, I was FUMING. If I ever came back with an attitude like that or language like that to an adult (I'm almost 40), my parents would've been mortified (and pissed). I really wanted to lay into her, but then I realized... you can't fix stupid. It's too bad, really - as I'm sure she wasn't born with that attitude.

AAhhhhhh I feel better now. Thanx.

i hear what your saying!! makes you wonder if thats what they do at their own house,just throw their trash on the floor? how lazy can you be? their attitude and their big dirty mouth's are another thing. when my boys were younger,i remember hearing kids talk like that and telling my boys "if i ever find out that your talking like that,even if your with your friends, i will beat the crap out of you!! do you understand me!?" we constantly told them to have respect for adults all the time. thats why i think so many people complement my husband and i, on how well mannered our boys are,even though they are in college now, and why they have so many friends. young kids are so much more appealing when they are well mannered.

That's exactly how we are raising our boys. They're still young (3&5), but plenty old enough to learn about respect.

I told my friend earlier (when I told her about this incident this morning).... that I received more respect from the inmates I used to teach at the jail (and I had students from all walks of life as students) than I received from that young girl this morning. In fact... I never had anyone at the jail talk to me like that.....the 'baddest of the bad' included.

I know teenagers are all about rebellion, and while I had my few moments of stupidity growing up, I was never, EVER that disrespectful to any adult.

It really comes down to how they were raised...no respect for the environment or for other people sounds like the parents don't care at all.

There was a day that my daughter and her friend were playing outside (we live in an apartment complex and while there are no sex offenders there, you just never know who your neighbors may be or what they may be capable of, so they never, ever play outside alone, not even on the patio). Anyhow, they threw their candy wrappers into a bush. I took the girls in, got kitchen trash bags and gloves, and we came back out and the girls picked up every scrap of trash in our section of the complex. My daughter has never littered again, and she tells her friends not to do it either.

There was another time that I caught my daughter imitating the way an elderly neighbor was walking with his groceries. Until we moved, my daughter had to carry his groceries upstairs every week. She doesn't make fun of older folks now

Some of my friends think I'm too much of a hardass with my kids...but I'm glad I do it, otherwise I'd end up with a teenager like that one day.

Texas-Rose is my kinda mom!!

My son ditched school once .... ONCE!!! .... he and 3 friends spent the day at friends house playing video games. He was grounded just short of "life". He was scheduled to go somewhere with a friend's family (amusement park or something). The mom called to try to talk me out of the grounding just for this trip. She acknowledged she understood my stance, but really wanted her son to have someone with him on this trip. I said I understood her dilemna also, but for my son to take my rules serious, I had to be serious with them.

A few years later, my youngest made a quip about ditching school. Without me saying a word, my son looked at her and said, "Forget about it ... it's just not worth it! Not with our mom!!"

My kids all agree "..... mom doesn't get mad or upset about too many things, but when she does, look out!"

Texas-Rose - I love it. I'm going to have to remember those with my kids if we ever have those problems!

Indydebi - I think too many parents want to be best friends with their kids and they aren't tough enough. My parents were parents - they were tough when they needed to be but still knew how to have fun.

We were always taught to speak respectfully to everyone....young or old. And the minute we got out of line, it was handled swiftly. Sometimes I think being in the military should be a requirement for everyone.

I wish Florida would outlaw styrofoam and non-returnable bottles. I am on my 5th extra large contractor clean up bag. I am cleaning up all the debris washed out of a creek onto my lawn from the high tides associated with the Hurricane Fay. I figure I have enough to fill another 5 bags at least. It is all human discarded litter from highways, fisherman, etc. Now Ike may be on its way and I'll have more of this stuff to clean up.

Some kids these days are so fresh..that was a real nice thing you did by picking the bottle up..not everyone would do that...I dont know whats wrong w/ kids ..I would have NEVER spoken to an adult in that manner...nor would I have ever thrown garbage on the floor..

Reminds me of one time my mom and I went to the bad side of town to check out doors for our house (bad side of town but great price). anyways, we were at a bus stop where there were group of high school kids and one of the little buggers threw a rock at my car..for no reason..I dont even have a nice car!! It scratched and dented my car! We just kept driving because as I said..it was a really bad side of town...I didnt want to get beaten or shot...Im sorry..but its that type of town..unfortunately. If we would have been on our turf we would have said something.

itsmylife - yep, it's a sad world. The "ME" generation is definitely out there. Too many parents are taking the easy way out and looking the other way. Discipline takes work.

On a similar note, my husband and I walked around our neighborhood last night. It's a new neighborhood, about 5 years old, and we were both disgusted to see so many nice houses with trashy, overgrown, weedy yards. I don't understand that mentality. Why buy a nice, new house only to let it deteriorate and look like crap?

One of the high school buses stops right outside our house and the kids stand on our lawn to wait for it since we don't have sidewalks in our development. I get really tired of picking up the stuff they leave behind...water bottles, half their discarded breakfast, cigarette butts, etc. We finally decided enough was enough when they came up to our porch one morning because it was raining and were smoking on our porch. My husband went out and nicely told them that could gladly wait on our porch if the weather is bad, but they cannot smoke there. At least I haven't had to pick up cigarette butts from my flowerbeds recently - I'm surprised they listened!!!! I guess the kids in our area are sloppy, but still occasionally listen to adults.