unruly children

Have you ever noticed that some peoples children really make it hard to enjoy the company of other adults? I love visiting with friends. I would have people over every night of the week because I love entertaining. I like just getting to know others, play games, or have bible study. We have many friends with children. Usually we have a great time together.
One family we enjoy spending time with have 5 children. When they are over, the adults spend time together and the kids move around the house. Sometimes we don't see any of them for quite awhile as they play a game or find something interesting outside. Other times they join our discussion in the living room and are extremely polite and add depth to the conversation.
Another family we visit has 5 children. While we visited last time, the kids only interrupted twice (very politely). Once to ask for a snack and once to prepare them to go outside. We had a great conversation with the parents. The children all had a great time with no fighting or troublesome behavior. In both these situations, the children conducted themselves in a very mature manner while still having fun. Very little correction is needed with the children in either of these settings.
Then there are families where one child can ruin the entire gathering. The one child who is destructive, loud, seeking attention, and downright rude. These children are not born this way, they are trained this way.
Many people do not like to hear the word TRAIN when speaking of raising children but that is what they need. A child does not know the correct behavior in every situation. A child needs to be trained to properly live in society. Just as a dog is trained to remain calm and quiet on a leash, a child should be trained to remain calm and quiet when appropriate.
A child can be expected to act civilized when out in public. This may come as a surprise to some people. Mark and I can expect our children to come simply by saying "come". They are to come immediately when they hear us call them. Yes, this is something that needs to be taught, but can be expected. We are working on this with the baby right now. "NO" is to stop the action right away. If she does not stop, I go to her and correct her.
All of this training does take work but is very well worth it. It is very tiring to always be arguing with children. Everyone in the family is happier if the children can be expected to obey the parents. There is also more time to spend together doing fun things than correcting behavior.
Our children are expected to be "good" while out in public because we work on it at home. We talk about correct behavior for different situations. One must be quieter in church than is expected at a close friends house. Some parents wonder why they cannot get children to be good when in public. It is because the child is allowed to act unruly at home with no respect of authority.

I will talk about this more later but I hope this is some food for thought.
For all my friends I described in this post, thank you

sara