The Meanest Parents In The World!

While growing up on the South Plains of West Texas back in the 1950's, my two younger brothers and I experienced the meanest parents in the world! While other kids ate junk food for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, bacon, and toast. When other kids had a Pepsi and Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat a nutritious meal (with vegetables even!).

Our parents insisted on knowing where we were at all times. Why, one would think we were convicts in a prison! They had to know who our friends were, and what activities we would be doing with them. Our mother insisted that if we would be gone for an hour, that meant we would be gone for an hour or less. We are ashamed to admit it, but our parents had the nerve to break the child labor laws by actually making us work! We had to wash dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, and all sorts of cruel and menial jobs. My brothers and I often thought that our mother lay awake at night dreaming up more cruel things for us to do.

Our parents always insisted on us boys telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! They demanded respect. We never sassed our mother, for fear of our father's severe retribution, and thus we held both our parents in high esteem (Ephesians 6:2). By the time we were teenagers, we thought our parents could even read our minds. Boy, life then was really tough! Our parents wouldn't allow our friends to just honk the horn when they drove up to the driveway. They had to actually come up to the door so they could meet and talk with them. They wanted to find out what kind of parents our friends had so they could compare notes!

While everyone else could date when they were 12 or 13 years of age, we had to wait until we were 16 years or older. In fact, this writer experienced only one real date in high school; that consisted of taking an unpopular girl to the Senior Prom. Because of our mean old parents, we boys missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us were ever caught shoplifting, vandalizing other folks' property, or ever arrested for any crime. It was all our parents' fault, you see. We never got drunk, took up smoking, stayed out all night, or a million other things other kids did.

Sundays were always reserved for attending worship services and Bible study, and we never once missed unless we were ill. We knew better than to ask to spend the night with a friend on Saturday night, because Sunday's were reserved strictly for the Lord, and we were to be up and ready! Now that we've all left home, we've become God-fearing, Bible educated, and honest hard-working adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents to our kids, just like our parents were to us. And you know what? It's sad to say, but the world just doesn't have enough mean parents any more! (Proverbs 13:24; Proverbs 19:18; Proverbs 22:15; Proverbs 23:13; Proverbs 29:15,17).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets