It Is What It Is

Sometimes “It Is What It Is” is the only appropriate phrase to describe a situation or event. We all have seen something happen or had some type of event occur that is puzzling. We sit back and analyze the situation and try to make some sense of something that makes absolutely no sense at all. After reviewing the scenario, inevitably the only thing that is appropriate to describe the WHY question ends up being “It Is What It Is”. I have said this so many times that my daughter gave me a sign with that saying on it that I have in my office. When I was a kid growing up my parents said something different.

I would constantly ask my mom or dad, why? Why do I have to clean my room? Why do I have to do my homework? Why do I have to cut the grass? Why do I have to rake the leaves? Why do I have to do this and why do I have to do that? Why? Why? Why? The answer that I would get whether it was from mom or dad would be “because I said so”.  I was just a stupid kid so I usually did what I was asked. Every now and then I would be rebellious and challenge the “because I said so”. Not a smart decision, like I said, I was a stupid kid.

I grew up in a typical neighborhood in the 1960’s where dad went to work all day and mom kept the house. Mom would make our lunches and send us off to school. We would get home from school and that is when we were supposed to do our chores before we could go out to play. With those chores came the Why? Why? Why? Well like any boy in the day, I wanted to jump on my bike and go be a boy and get dirty. Why did I have to do chores? Well my mom would give me the reason, “because I said so”. Every once and awhile that answer just was not compelling enough. If I disobeyed, then the next phrase would be “wait until your father gets home”. I do not want you to think that my father beat me when he got home…..God no, nothing like that. We were disciplined or as we called it, we got grounded. This could have meant taking away so many different things based on our age, what sports season it was, what weather season it was as well as something totally random.  Regardless, there was a consequence.

We learned from our mistakes and understood that being grounded was the result of not listening. I think we as a nation should bring back being grounded and tell our kids “because I said so”. The educational system should allow the teachers and administration to discipline children. I went to a Catholic school and the nuns did not think twice of slapping kids on the side of the head. I would never complain to my parents if I got slapped by a nun at school because they would say you deserved it and would probably slap me on the other side of the head. It is unfortunate that the discipline at school is now viewed as child abuse. I am not advocating violence by any means but enforcing rules with discipline is another thing.

There may be different viewpoints on this but in the end it comes down to the individual situation. Regardless of what the outcome, sometimes the only thing that can be said is “It Is What It Is”.

Until the Next Tom’s Take……………………..