AM I OLD ENOUGH TO DO THIS? I DOUBT IT!

Yesterday I need a couple extra cans of spray paint to finish a small project I was doing so I went to the local Home Depot to purchase them. I am not knocking nor supporting Home Depot. After the employee told me they were out of stock and I did my own search I happen to find what i was looking for. I knew he didn't have a clue if they had it or not and was not willing to look anyway. After all he was there to mix paint only if you brought it to him. Anyway I found what I needed and coaxed him to retrieve it from the shelf after they told me I could not use the ladder myself. Of course had they not seen me trying to use the ladder I would have never been able to get my paint that was out of stock.

I went to the checkout because I hate the self service checkout so i went to the register only to be told to use the self service checkout. I went back over to the self service checkout and started my scan only to be told I need my birth date. I said no way. The young lady said you have to be 18 to by spray paint. I looked at her and said I am old enough to be your grandfather. I think I am fricken old enough. She said I don't care you must enter your birth date to purchase it. I said look. I am using a credit card and you want my birth date. That's not going to happen. She said sir you have to enter your birth date to purchase the paint. I said god dammit I am not giving you my birth date. She walked up and put some birth date in. For all I know it was the birth date of Jesse James.

There are enough aerosols on the market that kids can buy without a birth date if they want to paint their lungs and get high. Stopping a kid under 18 from buying paint is not going to stop them from sniffing paint. Hell all they have to do is ask a friend and tell them they are doing s project of some sort or look in the garage. I guess maybe the drug dealers better ask all the kids they sell to if they are 18. I bet that would put a crimp in drug sales. I am sure a few kids would lie about their age to get the drugs.

The simple solution to sniffing paint, using drugs and all illegal substances is real easy. Especially for kids. If the parents don't know what their kids do then they don't care what they do. Any parent that loves their child and I mean really loves and cares about their childs welfare can tell within the 2nd use of any illegal substance. Don't trust your child. The peer pressure and opportunity to just try things once is to great to rely on trust. Talking may help but it's not any sort of guarantee. A kiss good night and a sniff of the breath and the twinkle in the eyes tells more than they do. Catch them the 1st time and there is a much better chance there won't be a 2nd time.

Being a strick parent if a good parent. My kids now tell me that I was very strick. I thought I was very liberal. They say not at all in comparison to other parents. They said it's not that they were not allowed to do what they liked and have fun. They tell me they knew that when the curfew time rolled around they had to be home and if we were up they had to sit down for a few minutes with us and watch tv. If we were in bed they had to knock on the door and open the door to annouce they were home. They said more often than not one of us would get out of bed to ask if we had a good time that night. They both told us, heck we couldn't do anything wrong because we always greeted them when they got home. They both said knowing that took any temptation of smoking, drinking or drugs away. Going to church on Sunday won't stop your kids from doing drugs on Monday.

I wanted my kids to enjoy themselves but I also knew what being a teenager was like because I was able to do what I wanted with no supervision. I have always been a good person, but I was wild or had the tag of being wild more so because my friends said I was. I drank beer and that was about it. I was always the unlucky guy with the wrong guys when something went wrong. None of it my doing or my idea. None of it ever had to do with stealing or anything like that. Mostly getting caught with beer. When I became a parent I decided I let my kids know I cared about what they did and who they did it with. Both of my kids are successful adults with families of their own. Their children are model citizens. What more could a man ask for in life.