The devil made me do it.....

"It's all HER fault!"

"The devil made me do it."

"The dog ate my homework."

My, my.....there are fingers pointing all over, aren't there? As a teacher, I did hear the one about the homework-devouring canine a few times. I bet it was even true occasionally. And that pesky guy with the pitchfork likes to meddle in our affairs when we let him, that's for sure. I can still hear his raspy chortle in my ear during one of my particularly naughty decades a while back.

But he wasn't to blame for all my misdeeds. Just like the dog....he was only doing what dogs do to stuff left laying around where it doesn't belong. Children can be forgiven, at least a time or two, for acting with less than mature forethought and then blaming everyone else. That's what kids do, and as parents it's our job to train them over time to behave more responsibly and then accept the consequences of their actions.

Some kids learn it and some don't. Those "kids" become adults with a learning disability called "unable to deal with life." And we all know these people, don't we? Their mode of operation is to stumble through life, tripping over their own lack of maturity, and then wailing that it is all....

• their mother's fault for not being nurturing enough.
• their father's fault for taking off.
• their sister's fault for not sharing closet space equally.
• their first grade teacher's fault for mispronouncing their name for an entire year.
• their neighbor's fault for leaving his wife alone too much. (Oops...where did THAT one come from?)
• the government's fault for not writing clear instructions.

And on and on it goes, until we scamper into the nearest doorway when we see them coming, their crocodile tears creating an even greater likelihood of tripping themselves. Somehow their spines never developed to the point where they can stand on their own two feet and tackle life like the rest of us do.

We kick the excuses out the door and do the best we can as adults in charge of our individual lives. We accept responsibility for US. And we stop the tiresome blubbering.