Jinxed Universe

I had the opportunity to have a mother of one of the YM tell me that his son needs good male influences in his life.  So, she was told that if he can come to the campouts, to mutual, to Church and other activities he will get those good male influences.  Needless to say he doesn't come to any of these activities, even though he is invited often.  This goes with all the YM!  They are all invited multiple times to participate in events and activities, yet if a parent doesn't make them, the YM will not show up.  Then when they don't show up, they miss out on a lot!

If your kids weren't doing their homework or skipping out of part of school, wouldn't you be able to tell in their grades?  Would that be acceptable?  So, why is it as a YM leader do I find my youth leaving Church to go home after sacrament meeting, or not see some at all and find they are at home posting pics up on Facebook with their "homies."  Excuses are rampant on why they can't come to some activities.  I've gotten, "I've got homework.","I can't help with the sacrament, because I'm not dressed appropriately!", "I'm going to a reptile expo!", "I've got work, football, basketball." and even, "I'm going to go get a drink!"  Then they never come back.  

This is where I get frustrated!  I want to make a list of the stupidest excuses and have them use them with me, cause as the saying goes, "One excuse is just as good as another!"

Parents, us leaders don't have much "authority" to get your kids to Church, mutual or campouts.  We will show up and invite them until our faces are blue, but without you kicking their butts out the door, and making sure they get there.  What do you expect us leaders to do?  You are their parents, make them go!  If Church isn't that important to you, let me know!  That way I can know who is working for me and who is against me!  You can only expect from your kids what you expect of them.  If you expect nothing, you can't be surprised when you get nothing.  If you don't draw a line in the sand, can they really cross the line?

I'm fairly computer savvy if you know me, you know this.  But, it doesn't take a genius to see what your kids are up to.  Just check on them on Facebook!  I've seen my YM swear, flipping the bird and "liking" extremely inappropriate Facebook pages.  When I see that they "like" a Facebook page that is marked with a sexually explicit warning on it, you are in trouble!  I can't do much besides calling them on it and strongly encourage them to knock it off.  But, when I only see them once in a long while, I can't even do that!

Parents, I implore you, be parents!  My Dad always held out with the contingency that if we didn't like living at his house, then we can go live somewhere else.  This was always the absolute trump card.  When, I say when because we all hit that point, he would always tell us that we are free to go live somewhere else where they may tolerate our behavior and when we decide that what we had wasn't so bad to come talk to him.  Was that a little drastic, yes!  But, that was usually never pulled unless we were being drastic ourselves.