A lesson in decent behaviour

If you are sitting comfortably I would like to tell you a story. It is a story that is very personal to me but its relevance will, I hope, become clear. It involves being a parent and teaching children how to behave and how to exist together in the world for the greater good of everyone.

Many years ago two of my children made it clear to me that they would very much like to have a computer. Clearly, their mother and I agreed, this would be good for their homework and for their education. Also, I thought, quietly, it would give me them a chance to spend hours and hours playing Football Manager. It seemed like a good idea and I felt that it would be to the benefit of all the household and all those people within it.

I purchased said computer and for a short while everything in the Fisher family household was sweetness and light. My two sons thoroughly enjoyed the computer and used their skills to teach me knew things and generally enhance the lives of everyone.

Then, after a while, things started to go wrong. Some slightly distasteful pop-ups started to appear on the computer suggesting that somebody had visited some less than pleasant websites and may have been abusing the trust that had been placed in them. This caused some concern in the house as you can well imagine.

Then my two children started to fall out with each other. They couldn’t share the computer and life became a constant battle for me trying to stop them crying and fighting and get the appropriate amount of time each of them sat in front of the screen.

One of my sons thought I was being unfair on him and felt that I had sided too much with the other. He got his other brother to support his case but luckily my wife sided with me and my other son to say that I had, in fact, been totally honest and above board in the way I handled the situation. A split in the family like this couldn’t be allowed to continue.

I could take no more of their childish petty squabbling and I called a family meeting. I explained that the computer was there for the good of everyone and that they had to stop being so selfish. I told the children to stop behaving like, well, children.

My very young kids understood what I was saying and realised that if they didn’t talk to each other and sort out their differences, big bad Daddy might actually take the computer away and everyone in the family would lose out.

That incident taught my children at the ages of about five and seven how to behave in the world and how to see the bigger picture. How to recognise when their own selfish stupidity can cause problems for lots of other people. It was a lesson in decent behaviour.

What a shame it is for the people in the red half of Liverpool that George Gillett and Tom Hicks’ daddies didn’t teach them a similar lesson when they were little.

I feel sure that these two multi-millionaires are behaving in a manner that would have embarrassed me if my pre-pubescent kids had behaved like it. Especially in public. How can they not be embarrassed by their behaviour?

Their public arguing, failure to compromise and constant undermining of Rafa Benitez and the playing staff can bring nothing but harm to a great football club that is worth a million times more to millions of people than these two ‘idiots’ will ever be worth.

Rick Parry is sort of the Daddy figure in the middle of the row. He was there long before these two kids and he seems to want what is best for the whole club. I don’t know enough about the ins and outs of the situation to say whether he is blameless or not, but he does seem to have the interests of the club at heart. His life is now being tossed and turned around by the constant bickering and arguing between two men who really should know better. Parry is in an almost impossible position.

I started writing a piece on my own Blog the other day about the two Americans but I got bored. They’re not worth it. Now though, I think, despite my lack of love for Liverpool, I feel so sorry for Rafa, the players and the fans that I had to put pen to paper.

Liverpool have a Champions League semi-final this week and it is absolutely outrageous that these men are carrying on in the way they are in a manner almost guaranteed to distract the manager and the players from the task in hand. They should be ashamed. I wouldn’t blame Mr. Benitez if he decided to walk out on the club. There are any number of top clubs around Europe who would employ him and treat him with the respect that he deserves.

Yesterday. Liverpool won again, 2-0 at Fulham. Kasey Keller, Fulham’s American goalkeeper, showed that it is not all of his fellow countrymen who want to destroy Liverpool by making mistakes to allow both of the goals. I just think he must be embarrassed by the way Gillett and Hicks represent his country and felt he needed to give something back.

If I may, I would like to send a message to Messrs Hicks and Gillett. Liverpool football club is an institution that means an awful lot to many thousands of people. You are ruining the club, holding them back and making life difficult for the people who actually matter.

Worse than that, you are behaving like very stupid little schoolboys and maybe if your daddy’s had smacked your legs when you were younger this would never have happened. Grow up, sort it out or clear off and leave the good citizens of Liverpool alone.