Simple forms of respect such as waiting to board an elevator until the individuals in it get off, instinctively knowing to offer your seat to an elderly person who is standing on a crowded bus, being respectful to your teachers and other adults, or opening a door for another person have all seemed to drastically diminish.

I have spent many years as a babysitter and a camp counselor, and I am amazed at what the children are allowed to get away with today. Since I witness daily encounters of children not behaving or listening to their parents, I felt that this important problem should be brought to the public's attention. As my senior exit project for high school graduation, I have researched this topic and the evidence is astonishing. I have realized that though the kids have lost the respect in our society, it's the parents who have fallen asleep at the wheel in this matter.

A recent British study by the The Office for National Statistics found that parents spend on average a mere 19 minutes every day with their children. This meager time is not sufficient to teach their children how to act and behave in public and towards others.

Another main cause for the decline of respect is that parents are no longer demanding respect from their kids. Child psychologist and best-selling author John Rosemond, in his book New Parent Power, writes: "Parents should respect their children for what they are becoming ... but not as equals."

Many parents today allow their children to disobey them and fail to control their child's behavior in public. Rosemond writes that many parents believe obedience stifles the child's creativity and leads to passiveness, when in reality obedience enhances a child's independence. With guidelines and a form of discipline, children will know their boundaries and explore within the framework that they are provided.

I believe respect is vital in our society and should be held in high regard. Parents must find ways to spend more time with their children, and must demand respect from their children. An effective way of doing this is by parents showing respect themselves. A significant way children learn is through observation. If they see their own parents and other adults demonstrating these acts of etiquette, children, too, will begin to mimic the same actions and it will soon become a natural characteristic.

By demonstrating respect and demanding that children do the same, these vital traits can again become ingrained in our culture. However, if parents fail to teach their children respect, this concept will become a thing of the past for future generations.

Merritt Williams lives in Huntersville and is a senior at Hough High School.