Bad Parents

[youngwhippersnapper]

You know...I look back on the way I was raised. With the love and care and discipline that all parents should give their children. And I honestly have to wonder. What the hell is wrong with all these parents. Seriously its just insanity.

Galveston, Texas - A father puts his two month old baby in a microwave for 20 seconds. This was studying to become a pastor. His wife blamed the Devil on it because she thought the Devil viewed her husband as a threat. The only threat he is to anything is children.

Just yesterday, authorities found a mother and her four children hung. One of the children, an eight month old is still alive. Said to be in stable condition. No evidence of foul play. They think that the mother wanted to kill her kids and herself because of a divorce.

Susan Smith drowned her kids when she found out her husband was cheating on her.

Thats just some of the more high profile stuff thats has been in the news in the past year or two. Though I think the Susan Smith stuff was further back than that.

But its not just those high profile things that worry me about modern parenting. New parents in this generation are very selfish. Highly motivated by their own self satifaction. And, in many many cases highly motivated by the attention they can get when their children achieve, look at children's beauty pageants and well any school sports.

Parents have two issues. They all think they are way to young to be parents and still want to have lives outside of parenting. And, they want no real responsibility when it comes to actually being a parent. The second is obvious by just looking at the amount of psychological drugs that kids are on these days.

Remember the days when if a child was loud and crazy and running around at breakneck speeds, he/she wasn't hyperactive, he/she was a kid? The fact remains that children between the ages of 3-9, mainly boys, have nuclear reactor levels of energy. They don't need Ritalin. They need a treadmill lol.


I dunno maybe I think its just me sometimes. But truly there are other otuside issues that effect parenting in this generation. You can't discipline kids like you used to be able to. I was spanked when I was young if I did something bad. I had plenty of things I loved taken away from me if I did something wrong. I was never beat though, be sure you understand that. But these kids today have the run of things. The parents may think they are in charge but they are bent on the whim of their children. Time-out is not an acceptable form of discipline, unless that time out is for like 2 weeks.

YWS

[SGT T.]

YWS,
It all depends on the age of the child you are raising. Time outs are quite effective on younger children. They had those when I was young. It was called standing in the corner back then, now it just has a fancy new name, but the punishment is the same.

The deal with bad parents... well, my take on it is that socitey has de-valued a great many things, and parenting is one of them, but really thats just a byproduct of the other things, like marriage, and sex. If marraige was held the same value it once did, maybe people would be a bit more careful about who they choose to be their spouse, and not so eager to get married, knowing that if it doesn't work out, you can just get a divorce. And then theres the de-valuation of sex. Sex was not always as blatent and obvious in society as it is now, how may times have you heard the line, "oh, I just slept with him/her, its no big deal." and now that you've got disposible marriages, and disposible sex, guess what comes next, disposible parents. There's only one problem, kids aren't disposible. IMHO, its just lack of accountability and laziness. The common wisdom now is; If my marriage isn't working out, I won't try to fix it, I'll just get a divorce. And if I just need companionship, I won't try to find a spouse, I'll just hook-up with someone. And if my kids are outta line, I won't try to teach them how to be adults, I'll just let them do what they want. Or abuse them, or abandon them.

Sad but true. In my opinion.

[TexKan]

I actually had my step daughter call me for advice (her daughter is 16) - I almost feel outta the chair. She thought I was the wicked step mother at one time. But on Mothers day she called to tell me she actually sits and thinks........... what would mom do???? I never spanked her but I sure knew how to make her life miserable if needed.

I always say - never saw a kid that was so scared of a time out it kept them out of the street and away from cars. Nope - don't know of a time out that that does that.

I just don't have time for time outs. My methods are swift and lethal and best of all they are remembered. Anything after that usually only takes a "look".

You are a smart kid YWS - I think you were taught and are taught well. (Craig - take a bow!)

I heard today the one thing ALL these mothers had in common were age.......... under 25. (if ya add Yates & subtract Smith - they all occured in Texas) Perhaps that goes to show the old thought of putting too much responsibility on kids will go where it belongs........ in the crapper.

Kids should be held responsible and they should understand consiquences (sp).............. what that means is they should get punished for bad behavior and be expected to tow the line.

I never grounded for longer than 3 days - it kept me home too long!! LOL LOL I did altho almost empty the room of one of my boys and removed the door from the hinges on my youngests room (so he couldn't slam it anymore) Course we all laughed at him dressin as we walked by his room for weeks. Cured him of the slammin doors routine.

[K C Muffin]

I agree wholeheartedly, YWS & Texie - After mom or dad busted our asses just once, we listened. Actually, I was the good girl , I'd let my older sis try to do something the first time and I let her take the whippin' if it went wrong! All the 'new age' parents called it mean, I called it tough love. My boys had it and I hope they teach it to their young'uns.

[tat2me82]

It's also the case of you look at your child in the wrong way and you have to worry about someone sticking their nose where it doesn't belong and calling social services on you. I don't think anyone needs to tell me how to raise MY child, that includes the govt. My child rarely gets a spanked, but he knows he's in deep shi** when he gets it. As it was stated before, I don't think kids need to be on all these drugs to settle them down. They're KIDS sheesh that's what they do. They want to run, play, explore, get dirty etc etc. why should they be restricted from that.

[lurker]

They want to run, play, explore, get dirty etc etc. why should they be restricted from that.

The current trend is to turn them loose in WalMart.

[Horse]

Frequent regular ass whoopin's from whichever neighborhood parent witnessed me being a brat when I was a kid worked on me. Then I got it again when I got home. Our grade school principal had a paddle hanging in his office that he rarely had to use just because of the mystique of it being there. The possibility of consequences can be a great motivator for good behavior until a kid learns that behaving appropriately is the easiest way to get ahead in life.

[dustinwadams5]

I understand about the medication of young children it's ridiculous. I am dealing with a similar problem at my sons school. He is roudy and gets into trouble, but he isn't half as much trouble as I was as a kid and now everybody in the school district wants him on medication. The kid is well behaved for me and I don't see where these problems come from. Time-Outs do work well for younger kids, but I think a good butt-spanking when NEEDED is not wrong, but sometimes necessary. I can't understand how all the teachers and staff in the school think my son is the most lovable little boy they have ever met, a teacher once told me about my son, "If nobody in the world loves you, then Dustin Wayne Adams Jr. will." and yet they want to put him on this zombifying medication? Sorry about the rant, but it's a subject that is very near and dear to my heart and very frustrating. lol

[TexKan]

Just say no.

[dustinwadams5]

Oh trust me I have every time they mention it.