Children are human beings who go through certain stages in their lives that often send them spiraling out of control one minute and make them completely calm the next; it gets some parents to the point where they wish that the child would turn 21.
Excuses for bad behavior
However, when children are bad, the first thing that some parents will say is, "it's just a phase" or "they couldn't have gotten that from either one of us" or, my personal favorite, "they are just like that, and they'll grow out of it."
Parents who say these things are refusing to acknowledge the real problem, which creates bigger ones. It is true that children do go through phases in their lives, but a phase is something that is not meant to last until a child's teen years.
Why children do not outgrow bad behavior
There is no greater lesson that a parent can teach their child than right and wrong, but some parents get to a point where they stop caring because they feel their child is not worth disciplining or paying attention to; there are other reasons as well.
Other reasons why some children never outgrow bad behavior is because they are imitating their parents, who are not teaching them any different. Children tend to mirror their parents' behavior, which, if not told differently, will continue to mimic and consistently stay in trouble.
Another reason why some children never outgrow their bad behavior is because of lack of discipline, this has been made evident by how many children grow up into adults who are still doing the same bad things such as stealing, picking fights, killing people and committing other crimes.
A lot of a child's and an adult's bad behavior share a common denominator – their parents. Simply, some parents get tired of not being taken seriously, and they stop disciplining their children, which in turn gives the child the indication that their parents stop caring about them.
To put a finer point on this, some parents just stop caring about being parents to disobedient children and focus their attention elsewhere. The parents are the ones who pay the price, because those children never outgrow that bad behavior.
No parent wants to feel that they are not doing a good job or want to take responsibility when their children grow up doing the same things that their parents did. The truth behind that child's and that adult's bad behavior lies with their parents.
Parents have found themselves so exasperated with trying to get their children to do the right thing; the parents just give up unaware of the damage that they are doing to their children when they do which is, most of the time, severe.
In conclusion, there are fewer and fewer children who are outgrowing their bad behavior because of factors such as lack of discipline, parental figures who gave up on them, the children imitating their parents' bad behavior. Sadly, many of these same children do not develop the concept of right and wrong until much later in life when it is too late.
Article sources
http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/types/psychological/odd.php