Bailout, bailout, bailout.

Like a cloying melody that keeps replaying in my head long after the real music has ended, bailout has become the word no one can avoid. The buzz of the month.

Why does this remind me so much of raising children?

Any parent understands that, until taught otherwise, our offspring expect handouts. Mine have mastered the art of supplication to such a degree that I've long thought they deserved a special Oscar, in the woe-is-me category.

Even before they get the words out, I know what they want by the downcast eyes, the stooped shoulders, the shuffling gait, the panic-button urgency and -- occasionally -- the willingness to eat crow. The appeal for rescue often comes after they've messed up their lives with short-sighted choices.

Chalk it up to that long, arduous process of maturation. Part of the behavior is to be expected. Yet, at some point in our parenting role, between our kids' puberty and young adulthood, we have to rely on the free-market approach.

We must allow our children to pay the consequences of their actions -- inactions, as the case may be. If they don't face the repercussions, how in the world will they learn?

It's called tough love, and I can tell you from personal experience that it works. The initial outcome tends to be painful, yes, but the long-term results are well worth it.

Government could do well to borrow a page from us parents. An economic crisis is unfolding in our country, one that experts say will change our financial system forever. We are expected, as American taxpayers, to underwrite a $700 billion fund to buy virtually worthless mortgage securities. We are being told that if we don't rush in with the money, economic collapse is sure to follow.

Excuse me for balking. Why should irresponsible bankers who surely knew better be treated any differently than you and me -- or our own children? Shouldn't they take the hard knocks for their greed and poor choices?

Like most mothers who have been single wage earners and survivors of economic turmoil, I am fiscally conservative. I'm a pay-as-you-go, don't-spend-unless-I-have-it consumer who stubbornly defies -- and infuriates -- those folks who whisper sweet lies about material possessions making us whole.

I don't flip condos, I don't invest in what I don't understand, I save for a rainy day and I stick to a budget even as people around me brag about the quick money to be made.

The two types of expenses I willingly cover -- education and healthcare -- are my investments in society's future. I am glad to pay now in order to benefit later. Safe risk, phenomenal reward.

So if and when I front my grown children money, it's with enough strings attached to keep the hot air balloons of their folly from taking flight. I demand that habits be changed, timetables met, expectations defined, oversight established.

If we taxpayers are going to foot the bill for a $700 billion bailout, we can hardly ask less of the financial geniuses who got us into this mess.

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