What happened to doing it ourselves?

I opened my homepage this morning and again this afternoon and I was completely disgusted by the news articles I saw. Really, devices for shutting off our children's television! So we don't have to argue with them! Whatever happened to simply laying ground rules? Are we really this weak? We can't shut the TV off ourselves! And a law to outlaw cologne in school! We need a law for this? There can't simply be a rule put in place. We've really come to a place in society where we're calling 911 for cologne!!! "Yes, officer this young man put on some AXE, we'd like to press charges."

I remember when my husband and I were youth leaders at our church. I had two young men, brothers, in our group who seemed remarkably immature. We loved them just as we loved all the kids but we also encouraged them to reach a higher potential. We often had church overnight activities at which all the kids would participate in a fund raising event, usually for a needy family, and as a treat got to spend the night in the church (with much supervision!) and go to service as a group the next day. On this particular venture, after a hard afternoon of car washing, we all settled in for a pizza dinner. Our two brothers had ordered a particular favorite expecting to split it. The oldest of the two, who was nearly 16, came to my husband, knife in hand and asked "Can you split our pizza for us, cause our mom says we'll just fight about it?"
Needless to say we were floored. But hubby then did something that apparently people are having trouble doing today. He said "No.", calmly and lovingly, this was a church group after all so it would have been rude if his head had actually exploded off his shoulders as I was sure it wanted to. "You two boys are old enough to split a pizza in half without worrying about who gets the bigger pieces or fighting about it." And lo and behold a miracle happened. The boys sat down quietly and ate their pizza, no fights, no cutting required, and the oldest boy even got an extra piece when the younger of the two decided he was full. No one died or even got maimed.
A lesson for all, grow a pair and lay down the laws yourself. Turn off the TV and right up some rules. It doesn't hurt and you may be surprised at how smoothly it will go. And one last thing, 911 is not your mommy, so stop the childish tattling!