In our society today, there seems to be an underlying need to blame others for the bad things that happen in life.
Granted, there are cases where someone’s actions lead directly to a negative outcome for someone else, who through no fault of their own, is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Victims of crime, abuse or neglect certainly do not warrant the treatment they receive.
On the other end of the spectrum are those who believe someone else is always to blame. They seem unable or unwilling to make the connection between their own actions or choices and the end result.
Case in point — the Toronto mother who blames the failure of her marriage on her cellphone service provider because she says their billing method exposed her extramarital affair. She is suing for $600,000 for alleged invasion of privacy and breach of contract.
Here is where common sense goes out the window. If she was not cheating in the first place there would be no affair to bring to light, but does she take responsibility for her own actions and the downfall of her marriage.
No, she blames the cellphone provider.
That is similar to those who head south across the border to go shopping, conceal their purchases at the border and then blame custom officials when they get caught lying and have to pay a big fine plus the duty and GST they should have paid in the first place.
It is also similar to those who break what they consider “minor laws” and then criticize the police because they are spending their time handing out traffic tickets instead of fighting “real crime.”
Also falling into this category are those who speed, get a photo-radar-generated ticket in the mail and blame the police, calling it a cash grab.
Here is a little dose of common sense for those who seem to have lost all touch with this sense — if you do not speed you will not get a ticket. It is 100-per-cent preventable.
Parents especially should be cautious of how they deal with situations in their lives when they are too quick to blame someone else. Personal responsibility is a powerful concept and one that has to be taught even at a young age. Children learn best by example and will not learn to be responsible for their own actions if their parents do not model this behaviour.
Parents who are quick to jump to their child’s defense and attempt to do everything to keep their child from having to face the consequences of their own actions will find themselves years later paying the bill, both literally and figuratively, when their adult children still need to be bailed out of life’s pitfalls.