I found the above cartoon on Curmudgeonly & Skeptical, a site that is crude, rude, and unbelievably funny. It does touch on an important issue:
Who's responsible for raising your children?
The answer I want to hear is - the parents.
If a parent can't manage to grow the spine to say "no" to a kid, they should be informed, in no uncertain terms, that if they can't keep their kid in line, society will step in if the kid's behavior gets so out of line that it affects everybody else. That means, if your kid only bugs you, tough luck. If he hurts someone else, or seriously damages property, we'll give you ONE chance to straighten him/her up.
Then we'll step in and remove the punk from your influence.
You see, it's seldom the kid that's the problem. The talk shows have brought in "tough love" experts who take the unruly, obnoxious brats, and return the good kids that always were there, just hidden by the incredibly bad parenting. Time and again, someone with a spine steps in, applies a hammerlock, and gets the kid to act right.
The Armed Services sometimes do that. They don't (and can't) reform hardened criminals. But good kids who've taken a wrong turn, they can sometimes get back on the path. They don't do it with "understanding" and "reasoning with them". they do it with rules, discipline, and consequences that are dependable.
These "can't say no" parents ought to try that method. It works.
1 comment:
Good post!
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