The Pandering Parent and The Kid Who Couldn't Boil Water

[Patrick]

I was incited into this blog by a recent study showing the downfall of today's young pandering parents. In a nutshell, they are failing the grade as even teachers are attesting from what they are witnessing in the class rooms. Granted, this is not the ideal environment to raise kids but it only means that the parent must become a responsible adult if they expect their kid to. Remember, it is not the kids fault for all his/her issues. The parents are responsible for instilling guidelines and to be roll models for their kids. This is proving not to be the case. It is obvious that both parents work in many cases but do not let that be a convenient excuse. It is also obvious that there are bad outside influences that are breeding like cockroaches. These typically include unbridled content in music, television, movies and the internet. Now as we know, corporate America is responsible for the fall of quality food availability but they are also responsible for brainwashing parents and kids in the never ending effort to sell, sell, sell at any cost. It does not matter what repercussions to the users occur. That is a minor blip in the bottom line. Hear me on this. You can't expect to bring kids into this world and hope they will better the planet if you yourself are a poor role model. It appears that there is more peer pressure between parents than there is the kids. The parents got to have the latest and the greatest and so too their kids and the parents will provide it. It isn't all about the here and now. It's about your future and the kids future and the future of the world. So don't sit there bitching and moaning about the high gas prices, or the poor economy, or your kid is misbehaving while you drive around in your gas guzzling SUV on your no hands free cell phone on your way to buy more crap manufactured in China while your kid sits at home playing a kill or be killed video game. Put away the phoniness, get rid of the needless crap and take ownership in what goes on in your families life. Who gives a shit if the Jones' next door bought a new car?! It begins in the home. It is your responsibility. Teach your kid to boil water and make their own bowl of cereal. The kitchen is the heart of the home. Who knows, if you instill enough family values in them they may take care of you at home instead of tossing you into a nursing facility when you grow old.....and you will grow old and it will not be pretty.

[Debbie]

Excellent post! Gone on the days of values and standards. Nothing wrong with good old fashioned discipline and saying "no" when it is necessary. Bring back the days of Ward Cleaver and you will have children who truly respect you and who will have a good feeling about themselves also.

[John Barrows]

To me the word is discipline. I don't mean the kind where you abuse your kids, physically or verbally. I mean teaching restraint, patience, self-reliance and yes, self-denial. We need to retreat - yes, I said retreat - to a time when we didn't "need" everything we saw in the store. When waste was something to avoid, and parents were not afraid of their kids. What I see today is just that - young parents' fear of doing something wrong in raising their kids. This is not a kid-centric world. It is a world of adults. Kids don't rule the roost - or shouldn't anyway. Discipline is not demeaning a kid. It is not screaming. It is not threatening. It is letting a kid now what the rules are, and sticking to them. If a kid chooses to ignore the rules, then they are doing it knowing what the consequences are. Love and excessive leniency are not the same thing. Cooking and eating together as a family is one good way to raise kids.

[John Barrows]

[Debbie]

HA! Love it, hits the nail on the head!

[Marilyn Norman]

Hallaluah I wish more parents would read this. I have to praise my kids because they are doing this. She even got a used( Yes as in older and rusty) tricycle for Christmas from Santa. not because they couldn't afford it but because she didn't know the difference . She lovingly named it "Rusty" and rides it as if it was new and sparkling.