What were they thinking?

Last Friday night everybody had a crazy schedule. Emily was at AnchorSoul, Alexa had a sleepover birthday party, Owen had a Halloween party at the gym. It was just Ryan, Ian and myself. Sort of at the last minute we decided to let Ian invite a friend and we would go out in Raleigh while we waited for Owen. Owen needed to be picked up at 10:00. We decided we would like to go bowling. Bowling is an activity we love to do together as a family but due to budget constraints and the rise of bowling costs, we haven't gone as much in the past couple of years. Anyway, we go to the bowling alley and we all play the first game. The second game I decided to sit out in case we didn't get done in time so that I could go pick up Owen. As I was sitting there, I noticed the family in the lanes beside us. You could tell they were "official" bowlers. There was a mom on one lane, then a dad (in his airbrushed 'I love bowling' t-shirt on one lane and then, what I assume to be their teen aged son in the next lane. The thing I noticed right off was that both the dad and son had their ipod earbuds in. I thought that seemed sort of odd that you would go bowling as a family with earphones. Then, I noticed the shrill, high-pitch nastiness coming out of the mother's mouth. She was screaming at them (the son in particular) over how they were doing things. I looked up at the score board expecting to see her score WAY above the others. However, that was not the case. I thought, that woman is missing the point. She is missing that young man's heart. I am not sure if I felt worse for the young man or the mother. It did cause me to stop and wonder about how many times my kids wished they could just put on their earphones and tune me out. Now, I don't scream obscenities at them - ever. But how often I am just barking words at them rather than tending to and reaching their hearts. We all want the best for our kids and want them to be/do their best. However, as my kids get older and older, I would pick being the best in character, integrity and honesty EVERY time over anything else.