From: Steve Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Sat Jul 10 2004 - 10:06:52 PDT
>What the hell is wrong with parents
>these days??
It is my humble opinion that most parents shouldn't be. Society idolizes
children and makes it seem like the most natural thing in the world to
do. The problem is that parenting is a LOT of work and, sadly, far too
many (IMHO the majority) are not ready for it because they bought into
the hype. Some learn fast and fly right after a little while, some take
longer, but too many don't ever get it right. I don't think it is very
different today than it was in the past. Just more noticeable to us
since we are now the adults instead of the kids.
One big difference today is random people can't pick up the slack as they
once could. Ron's story about the kid with the bungie cord... 50 years
ago Ron could probably have gotten away with hauling the kid out by his
ear and giving him a WELL DESERVED paddling on his backside (preferably
with a near by pioneer shovel <g>). The pain wouldn't last, but the
negative reinforcement for disobeying an elder would. Now a days poor
Ron would be looking at 6 months in prison for assault and battery on a minor.
I'm going to a show in a couple of weeks and I just had a thought. You
know the old squirt bottle trick for disciplining pets? I wonder how
much trouble you could get into for using it on kids or mothers who don't
pay attention to the rules? I mean, it's not like it's battery acid your
spraying on them (though there's a thought!). Just picture it "BAD
kiddie... <squirt, squirt, squirt>, that's a bad kiddie <squirt, squirt,
squirt>" :-)
You know its bad when you are only 35 and think that kids (and their
parents too <g>) need to be smacked around by perfect strangers.
Steve
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