I recently came across some photos of my early college days. And it brought back some amazing memories. In my ‘Freshman year, I was involved in a first-class food fight. I am certainly not proud of such immature, irresponsible behavior, but I can’t tell you that it wasn’t fun. It was!

If I remember correctly, it was lunch time and they were serving spaghetti and meatballs, salad and those little melon balls. Those mushy melons made for perfect ammo. I am not sure who threw the first one, but mine certainly wasn’t far behind.

For a good 20 minutes or so, the stresses of midterms were forgotten and screams of pure delight filled the dining hall as meatballs splashed and noodles stuck to the wall. But since our campus was located on a military base in Germany, it didn’t take long for the military police to show up and restore order.

Now, they could have disciplined us through the college (University of Maryland) or made it a military matter and justice would have been served down through the chain of command (impacting our father’s careers). But instead, they locked the door and about 50 18-year-olds spent the rest of the day deep cleaning a kitchen and dining hall. We scrubbed pots and pans. We washed dishes and trash cans. We cleaned furniture and scrubbed the walls. And we all wrote letters of apology to the base commander.

I never did it again.

Contrast that account with a report on CBS entitled “Several kids arrested after food fight.” It was referring to a food fight some 25 kids, aged 11-15 were involved in at a Chicago Charter school.

What caught my attention was the reaction of the parents. Instead of supporting the school district and police authorities as they held their children accountable, the parents groused about how long the kids had to wait to be picked up. They worried about their records and how it might be hard for them to find summer jobs or internships. They resented that school officials “belittled” their sons and called the school’s behavior INEXCUSABLE.

Wow…times have sure changed. In a situation when teenagers clearly needed discipline with significant consequences, they got whining parents excusing the inexcusable.

So, parents, this week is a good time to remind ourselves of our responsibility to “train up a child in the way he/she should go…” Kids are busy and active in the summer. They sometimes come up with wild ideas that seem fun at the time. Let’s keep those eyes in the back of our heads open. Let’s pay attention to their plans. And if necessary, lovingly apply appropriate discipline.

 Likely they will skip the food fight next time!