High Steaks Sports

There's a commercial for some auto glass company that goes something like this:
Kids playing baseball
Kid hits baseball
Baseball hits windshield
Kids run
One kids comments, "Looks like mom is gonna get another box of Omaha steaks."
The commercial then shows the family getting a box of said steaks, because you get a free box every time you hire them to replace a windshield. This commercial implies that the kids have done this at least once before, and neither the kids nor the parents said, "Hm, you know how the windshield got broken last time? Maybe the kids should play somewhere else where there aren't any cars." Instead, the thought process is, in the voice of Homer Simpson, "Mm, steaks. *drool*"

I came home from school or work or something the other day, and I see cardboard in my window. As lovely as plain brown cardboard is, I didn't think that my roommates did it for decoration. Turns out the kids who are always playing soccer out in the too-small-and-too-close-to-apartments-to-logically-play-any-sports grassy area kicked their ball into our apartment via our window. Now, of course, when you break someone's window, your automatic response is to run away. The kids here, however, are smart and came back because we had their ball, and they wanted it back. So we know who did it (which wouldn't have been too hard to figure out because it's always the same kids playing anyway).

A couple weeks ago, those same kids with that same soccer ball hit our porch light, destroying our bulb, which we were too lazy or cheap to replace. There seems to be a trend here.

So, I go to a Bible discussion group yesterday, and on my way there, I see them playing again. I come home later and hear that they would have broken our porch light, had they not done it already. That's three times we've been the victim of kids playing soccer. Why are their parents not saying, "Hey, you know how you keep breaking other people's things when you play the same sport in the same place? Maybe you should go to the park right down the street. Or, you know, read a book or something that won't leave those fine gentlemen of The Underground walking on glass"? I think I know why: parents don't give a flying crap about what their kids do, as long as the kids aren't in their hair.

Now I'm not one to generalize. I believe that the only generalization that is true is that all generalizations are untrue. I know that there are good parents out there. And their kids aren't the ones getting attention because they're not the ones breaking windows. Why raise your kids when TV and the great outsides can, right? Why teach them not to destroy things, as long as they're not destroying your things? I just think too many people have too many kids and don't know how to raise them.

Either that, or they really like Omaha steaks.