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doctorgonzo · 07-15-2005, 03:35 PM

Yes, it's not hard to know how to raise a kid if you yourself were raised correctly, but how many parents weren't?

Last weekend I was at a lake in the middle of nowhere in MN, killing some time. Behind me sat a couple of women who had to be no older than 25 by my guess. They were saying things to each other like "You should move to *insanely small town*, it's great!" and "What kind of horrible person doesn't even come with us to the bars anymore?" and "You should go to court and get your child support increased for that, that's what so-and-so did." It was only afterwards that I saw these people had children with them (though the "child support" comment did give away that somebody in that group had to), and these were fairly old kids given the ages of the mothers. When the kids showed up, the mothers were yelling, threatening to spank them, swearing...pretty much acting as far from a parent as you can.

I'm guessing that these young mothers weren't exactly raised right, and their children probably aren't going to know how to be a good parent unless they get really lucky. Bad habits do usually come in cycles, as the children see how the parents act and don't know any better. Yes, some very good kids are smart enough and are fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to see a better way of life, but that's unfortunately too rare.

I'm with Cricket on the "decline of our civilization" belief. I think the main problem is that it is just too easy to dehumanize people these days. You can live such a sheltered life with technology and irrational fears that you lose all empathy and stop seeing other people as being just like yourself. Instead, it's "me first" and away with everybody else. It's sad.

07-15-2005, 03:35 PM	#25
doctorgonzo Professional gadfly Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 6,364	Yes, it's not hard to know how to raise a kid if you yourself were raised correctly, but how many parents weren't? Last weekend I was at a lake in the middle of nowhere in MN, killing some time. Behind me sat a couple of women who had to be no older than 25 by my guess. They were saying things to each other like "You should move to insanely small town, it's great!" and "What kind of horrible person doesn't even come with us to the bars anymore?" and "You should go to court and get your child support increased for that, that's what so-and-so did." It was only afterwards that I saw these people had children with them (though the "child support" comment did give away that somebody in that group had to), and these were fairly old kids given the ages of the mothers. When the kids showed up, the mothers were yelling, threatening to spank them, swearing...pretty much acting as far from a parent as you can. I'm guessing that these young mothers weren't exactly raised right, and their children probably aren't going to know how to be a good parent unless they get really lucky. Bad habits do usually come in cycles, as the children see how the parents act and don't know any better. Yes, some very good kids are smart enough and are fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to see a better way of life, but that's unfortunately too rare. I'm with Cricket on the "decline of our civilization" belief. I think the main problem is that it is just too easy to dehumanize people these days. You can live such a sheltered life with technology and irrational fears that you lose all empathy and stop seeing other people as being just like yourself. Instead, it's "me first" and away with everybody else. It's sad.