following on from all the Bedlam is boring,

I figured I'd try my two cents at posting a little opinion of my own, on parenting.

I've been observing how parents are with their kids in a variety of countries for a number of years now, and IMHO kids are more spoiled than ever, get away with more, and are less disciplined than ever.

Example> Woman walks down the road, her kid trailing behind her. Kid trips up and immediately looks up, but no tears or nothing. I think kids is about to get up and catch up to mamma, but as mamma finally turns around, and their eyes meet, kid starts crying, I mean Bawling his eyes out....Mamma comes running and it's all love and cuddles.

Example: Kids with their parents at our bar over new years eve...

Kids are running around everywhere making a nuisance of themselves.. That's okay though... Kids start throwing small firecrackers (the kind you just throw at the ground really hard and they make a crack sound) all over the place, under clients chairs and at their feet and being annoying ot people. I go over to their dad, and ask him to stop his kids from doing this.... He agrees and goes over to them.... The kids start crying, so dad gives them back the firecrackers and they start all over again.... When I go back to the dad, the dad looks at me helplessly as three under five year olds keep annoying my clients. Dad says that they "just start crying if he doesn't let them"

Example:

Kid starts crying, mamma goes over, kid shuts up... mama comes back, kids start crying again, .... mamma goes over, kid shuts up.......

When I was a kid...if i started crying, my parents would always check to see if everything was okay, and then if everything was fine, they'd leave me to it.... I soon learned that crying doens't get me what I want.....

Opinions.....

When I was a kid...if i started crying, my parents would always check to see if everything was okay, and then if everything was fine, they'd leave me to it.... I soon learned that crying doens't get me what I want.....

Opinions.....

Crying still works for me and i am almost 30

Seriously though, i know what you mean, kids just dont have any discipline. You see them outside my house, 7 and 8 year old kids out at 9 or 10pm every night, where the <deleted> are the parents? I was never allowed out at this time of night, not even at weekends, and it was a lot safer then than it is now.

They hang around the local shop, and when you go in they are asking you to buy them booze. Now i used to do this when i couldnt get served in shops, but when i was told no i wouldnt then turn round and give them a mouthful of abuse.

Hey thanks for gfetting on the thread Dale. I was wondering, it seems every one else is quite happy crying about the lack of non political threads.

And yeah, you seem to know what I mean... Maybe all the others are that young that they feel targetted.

Somewhere along the line the hippie ideals like "don't spank your kids" got mis-interpreted as "don't dicipline your kids"

A couple years ago in a McDonalds I'm trying to eat and read my paper but the five-ish kid from the next table keeps yelling and throwing his toys at my table. After a few minutes I look over at his unqualified Oprah-watching mom and say "M'am... could you please stop him from doing that? The rest of us in here are trying to eat."

"He's just expressing himself", she says "I don't want him thinking that's wrong"

"Well, if my parents had the same attitude you have, your kid would be upside down in the Mc Trashbin right now."

Suddenly I'm the ill-mannered one?

At least they moved

cv

Yes, many kids, especially in the West, get away with to much shit.

Lack of discipline and firm stance on ther parents part allows the kids to use and abuse the love the parents have for them.

A kid that cries to get candy isn't getting any the following saturday either - and STICK to the punishment you set out for them!

Never EVER threaten and then don't follow through. The kids pick up on this very fast.

Yes, I see what you mean Kayo! I was raised in a family where I learned manners and if my Dad said he'd make sure I wouldn't be able to sit down for a week, he meant it. But it never did me any harm!

Seeing children misbehaving and being spoilt really makes me feel annoyed. The parents at the end of the day are just going to make a hard life for their kids and future partners in the meantime. Because if they don't learn what is right and wrong now, in the future they will find it difficult to hold down a job or relationship because they were simply not taught the right way to behave and the parents are to blame for that.

It is their responsibility to raise their children. So in future when their children call up for the tenth time that week asking for money it is the parents fault for not raising them well and because of that they will have a very hard future.

I have been working as babysitter since i was fourteen y.o. It is very difficult to educate a child and many times you ask yourself if you are doing the right job.

I think children always try to see how far they can go...so they test you for the first few hours.

My trick I become one of them..so if we play cards i don´t let them win, if we watch a film is has to be chosen by consensus, if we play with toys we have see who is the baddy and who is the goody.. I treat them the same way they treat me...they are not good to me i am not good to them...and most of the time works...they will rather have a happy glauka than an angry one...

i think parents are over protecting their children. they think that children are helpless and stupid which most of the times is the opposite...

With children you have to gain their respect and their confidence...then They are great fun...

I think parents don´t spend too much time with their children they just want to be left alone, so they don´t know how to treat them. On top of that nowadays children are expected to be the best so they have to study hard, take golf lessons, dancing lessons, study music, play hockey....So there is not time left for them to be children anymore...

When i was a little girl i didn´t cry for no reason because the times i try to get thnigs done in my way by crying my father will come an slap me (not to hard though) and say" now you have a reason for crying" It worked...

Most of the kids in my building (in Pattaya) are pretty well-behaved and polite. One is often totally opposite to the rest though. They range in age from 4-10.

All of them run around the neighbourhood unsupervised, often until 10-11 pm (every night of the week). Not only is this potentially dangerous (all 5 are girls), but they often have to get up early the next morning for school.

I've been noticing that the 3 youngest are often complaining about being ill (mai sabaii) in the mornings, sleep until noon, then play all afternoon. Their parents don't seem to be clueing in to this, and they don't seem too concerned about it.

The one brat (one of the youngest of all of them) gets away with almost anything. Her single mother makes the occassional half-hearted attempt at discipline, but as soon as the kid starts the tears flowing, mama forgets all about why she was trying to discipline her in the first place.

(for example. The other day the kid had this toy bucket. Mama had a bag of little sausages and she offered a couple to her daughter. The daughter wasn't happy at being offered only 2 sausages and started pouting. Mama gives her the whole bag (probably 30 little sausages in it). The kid takes 2 out and throws them on the table, then pours the rest into the bucket. Mama says something and what does the kid do ? Dumps all of the sausages on the (dirty) floor and throws the bucket at Mama.

Mama takes the bucket and gives the kid a (very) light swat on the butt. Barely hard enough to kill a mosquito. Kid starts crying, Mama forgets about the spanking and starts hugging the kid and apologizing for being so mean to her !

If I had done something even remotely similar at that age, I wouldn't have been able to sit for at least a week, and I ###### sure would probably never do something like it again !)

In North America, the situation is getting worse. Parents are being arrested and charged with child abuse for trying to discilpine their children.

I knew a kid in Canada (12 year old girl) that threatened to report her babysitter for molestation if the the babysitter tried to make her go to bed earlier than she wanted to. 12 years old !

When that kid's mother asked me to look after the house and kid for a few days while she was on a (military) course, I refused. I wouldn't go near that kid at anytime unless there were other people around, never mind be alone in the house with her for a few days.

Oh yeah, the woman's (2nd) husband (not the kid's father) ? He's in jail. Mom was away at work and the kid reported her stepdad to the police for (allegedly) molesting her. Did he do it ? He says he never touched her. She says he did. He's in jail, career over, criminal record for life.

That's just one example. The kid learned early how to get her way and avoid be disciplined for anything. Imagine what a gem she'll grow up to be.

Sad thing about it, I'll never be a parent. I think my father overdid it quite often when he punished me, and I don't want to end up being the same kind of father. When I see the stories about undisciplined kids, and the stories about parents being arrested for trying to discipline their kids, I want to get as far away as possible from any situation that could see me being responsible for children.