No one takes it seriously, but some have begun to notice...The shootings at Columbine and elsewhere have brought some scrutiny to 'bullying' (emotional abuse). I hope that they will soon see that the workplace is full of bullies too. It only makes sense that these teenagers learned this in their homes and the people running those homes are our co-workers.I don't know why they are crappy parents. I could go into philosophy, religion, politics and much more and not find a specific single cause.I do know that this is not the world we grew up in. I grew up in a 'Father Knows Best', 'Leave It to Beaver', and 'Gigit' world. TV was not my life, it reflected my life. I had a treehouse, played in the creek, skipped stones and all that other 'Andy Griffith' stuff.My child walks out the door to violent lyrics, threats at every turn, drug dealers in school and cops committing the most heinous crimes imaginable. Its like changing channels between 'Mr. Roger's Neighborhood' and 'A Clockwork Orange'.
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In my opinion, it started to go downhill when the government decided to interfere in parenting. The schools stopped teaching reading, writing and \'rithmatic. They began to teach us \'what to think\' under the guise of teaching us \'how to think\' (critical reasoning). Soon we had the Columbine heretics killing kids wearing \'Survival Of The Fittest\' t-shirts, as if it was the inevitable conclusion to the evolution being preached.
I was commenting to ds and dd that Hollywood mirrors society. During the 30\'s and 40\'s people learned their social graces from the movies. It was displayed for them. My aunt used to tell me that she and my mom would go to the movies to find out what Betty Grable was wearing, the latest fashion, and they would copy how to do things, like table settings etc. During the 50\'s things started getting a little slacker as per some of the Doris Day films. Albeit they are innocent now compared to what is being shown today, it was still very cutting edge for movies. Then during the sixties, when there was the sexual revolution, drugs, hippy freaks, the movies reflected that as well and then it was down hill from there. Our 1940 values are in the toliet. There are no more values anymore. Five days before Paris Hilton went to jail she was popping valiums like they were candy and drinking wine to numb her fear. Boys are dying in Iraq and Iran and there was this crazy media blitz over someone who is basically a waste of time and air space. She has not contributed anything to society but by going to jail and staying off the streets.
I personally don\'t think that there is a lot of attention paid to emotional and mentle abuse. People sometimes don\'t understand why I struggle with certain issues and to tell them my mother drove me nuts is like telling them that my mother was a lie when they believed her to be a saint. Not wishing to diss the memory of her but she was difficult and there are those who refuse to believe it and think that I have had the psycho problems and they were my fault and I think that is how emotional abuse is viewed. It is the victums fault.
I am so glad I had the oppertunity to home school my kids. I don\'t know how we did it fiscally but it has been a real gift from God. My ds might be an air head but can you imagine what a ding a ling he would be if he were in public school? He is just going through a \'period\' in his life where he is just \'stupid\'. I hope and pray for those who want to continue to home school that it is still legal in the years to come.
LL
I\'ve noticed this too. Tom does and many others. It kinda sucks, but there are always forms of trouble and evil people in all forms at all times through history. So much truly depends on you neighborhood and the parents. Yes there are many people who have never had their ass kicked...bullies and most doctors
sometimes I think it\'s like we are locust. they are ok, until the population gets to a certain point and the they swarm eating everything in their path, including each other.
I personally think that a lot of the blame goes to the parents. I have worked in school districts and when I was a kid, if I got in trouble at school, I knew I was in twice as much trouble at honme. Now parents say \"not my little angel\" and if you punish him I\'ll sue. However those are the same parents that threaten to bring suit if you try to teach morals, values, etc. Schools can not teach in a vacumm. History has context, wars have consequences, but to be politically correct, we adjust our history lessons.
Yup girl, when say that my mother raised me to be a victim, people don\'t get it. Yet it\'s the truth, and when you\'re told for the first 21 years of your life that nothing you do is good enough, then you try to please everyone, at all times, which isn\'t possble and then I feel like failure. ah, mothers
There are no consequences in the schools any more. There are in life, and I think it is a diservice to our kis to ignore that. but for many kids a suspension is just \"fun\" time as there is no parent at home to oversee them, they just go do what they want. ok, i\'m rabbling do to the migrain meds, so i\'m outta here. I wish I hade a solution, but I don\'t.
\"Its like changing channels between \'Mr. Roger\'s Neighborhood\' and \'A Clockwork Orange\'.\"
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Wow! That\'s incredibly profound!
Oh, I don\'t think it\'s schools. They do fail in what they\'re teaching in general. Plus, in the past, all the was still taught anyway. My dad tells all kinds of stories about what he learned in high school.
It\'s the change in our culture. It\'s being raised by media instead of people. It\'s adults thinking that \"buying\" makes up for \"quality time.\"
We\'ve become the ultimate consumers.
What happened to staring out the window on the road trip and thinking about nature and changes in scenery and thinking about what it means, comparing and contrasting the differences in trees and grass and pasture and cows and sheep and buildings and architecture and being amazed at God\'s work and Man\'s work and the amazingness of nature, life, creation ... akin to imagining images in the clouds and imagining what it would like to be among them and what they were like to touch.
And why are our kids be babysat in the car and the house and the stroller and wherever they go by TV, DVDs or video games (the worst!)??? Have you seen the cable commercial that shows the kid in front of the living room TV watching the penguin, in the kitchen watching the penguin, in the car watching the penguin on the DVD screen, then going to the mall to see the penguin and screaming in fear at actually interacting with it in person only to then be in his stroller watching it on his hand-held video... Doesn\'t >that