[Rabbit]

Originally Posted by ArmsOfLove

What it does mean is that you don't get to treat your family like garbage and then go to sleepovers and play dates and treat the rest of the world like royalty

That makes absolute sense to me, but it isn't what "family gets the best" communicates. I don't expect to get the very best behavior my children are capable of before I let them go out. I do expect them to meet certain standards, or clearly we've got other concerns that need dealing with before going out. "Family gets the best" sounds like a phrase from fundamentalist/conservative homeschooling families, and it will always have those arrogant, isolationist overtones. Family gets respect. I don't give a rat's rear end what "the best" is.

How you behave with family is most definitely an indicator of how capable you are of handling yourself out and about. And no, you never get to crap on your family and expect to have the rest of the world handed to you on a platter. That would be just plain creepy.

---------- Post added at 02:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:19 AM ----------

And as a general philosophy, it sounds awful. We don't get the best, and everybody else the dregs. We don't save the choicest cut of beef, the biggest slice of the pie, and give company or friends the left overs. It sounds horribly selfish.

We take care of family, absolutely. But that doesn't mean we reserve the best for ourselves, all the time.