STORM2K

It's the freaking parents who leave them alone all the time!!

Can you tell I'm aggravated. There are several homes nearby with children of all ages. All summer, most of these kids parents would leave for work, shopping, or whatver and leave the kids alone. Some of them get left alone overnight. I'm not talking about 15 year olds, I'm talking about 8, 9, 11, etc. Way too young to have no one looking out for them. Needless to say, these kids run wild around here, go wherever they want. I know my kids would too if I weren't here. I would NEVER dream of leaving my kids (ages 10 & 7) alone for even a short period of time.

And we wonder why kids are bringing guns to school and doing as they please. Please people, if you are going to have kids, raise them and be responsible for them.

Off my soap box now

hmmm...maybe the reason why I'm such a good kid is that I'm normally pretty relaxed and set back...(lazy) However for the past 3 days its been raining and I've gotten so...bored...

Here in AZ you better not get caught leaving any child under the age of 12 unattended for a length of time because the Police and Child Protective Services will be on your case big time.

Steve

I think sometimes the parents today need to get their butts spanked, like the kids used to in the good old days! I've seen so much lax of discipline on the parents part it's not funny at all, it's disgusting!

Sadly, many parents are rarely around to supervise their kids. These kids want attention and discpline. Too many kids are spoiled.

To me its the total lack of discipline. Parents want to be their childrens best friends instead of their parents.

Aslkahuna wrote:Here in AZ you better not get caught leaving any child under the age of 12 unattended for a length of time because the Police and Child Protective Services will be on your case big time.

Steve

Here in Louisiana too, Steve. The way some kids are they need to change the law to 18!

When i was about 12 my parents started leaving me alone in the house when they went out at nite. My next door neighbors were just a phone call (or a yell) away if i needed them.

There have been a few cases here lately of police being sent to a home where young children were left alone. In one case the parents arrived home while the police were there, and were promptly handcuffed and taken to jail. In the other cases ive heard of the parents arrived home after the children were removed. Of course they called the cops reporting their kids missing. An officer was dispatched not to take a report but to arrest them. They dont play here in Virginia either

It's all the hippies fault.

Blame it on GREED. Gotta have that new 30K car, the 5,000 SF home....ect. All this takes two incomes so Mom and Dad both work. Gotta keep up with the Jones ya know. My Mom was a stay at home Mom, I was a stay at home Mom. We got along just fine on one income. Since I didn't work we could only afford one car note. My hubby drove the old paid for car to work and I kept the new one in case I had to drive the kids to the DR. We bought a very modest home, one we could afford on one income. The home was very basic without any bells and whistles that homes are coming with today. Didn't have cable TV, didn't have cell phones. My kids were under the microscope all the time. I insisted on knowing where they were and I checked up on them.

I beat my kids with a baseball bat... lol... JUST KIDDING!! I totally agree with the lack of supervision... My kids have their friends who are out at all hours of the night... I wont let my kids spend the night over there, they are at the age of sneaking out and all that soooo.... and yes, I dicipline my kids, not by beating, well sometimes..lol.. but by taking things away like the skateboards, video games, phone... etc... esp when they get a bad report card... they better not bring home any bad grades or thats it!!! I am an at home mom, and my kids are always accounted for... we also have a modest house, 2 newer cars, 2000 jetta and 2004 grand prix... but thats because my hubby works 30 miles on way to work, and i have the kids... i dont want any car repair bills!! We have one income (hubby works for the post office) and we do fine....

Holly - I could get on that soapbox with you. This topic could morph into one specific direction b/c here is what I think of when I ask myself, what is wrong with kids today - too many 2 parents working families. I'm not saying one has to stay home all the time. But couldn't the 2 parents juggle their schedules so they can spend the most time with their children? And not put them into before and after school day-care options at school? I remember seeing children dropped off @ 6:45 when Elem. School doesn't begin until 9:10. Then they remain after school, until the last possible minute, 6 p.m. Parent show up in sweats or work out clothes, not business attire. You know they stopped off at the Gym instead of coming to get their kids right after work. That used to burn me up. I also would see the day-care directors standing outside, long past 6, going on 6:30, holding the hand of one child, and both would be watching all the cars entering the parking lot, hoping the next car would be the parent. This school is busy with Football and Cheerleading practices so there would be a stream of cars coming. As the child would realize, no that car is not my mommy, it would break my heart. Yes my daughters went to this school, so any given week I was over there a lot, for ballet lessons they took or girl scout meetings. Times I didn't always leave the facility, I'd bring the paper to read. I saw a lot going on and I'm sorry to say, but these parents who prolonged their child's day-cares times seemed selfish to me.

If this was just a few instances I saw, multiply that by hundreds across the country.

My next door neighbor has worked 3 weekdays, with 2 off for years. When her daughter was in Elem. she used this after school day-care option. Did she allow her daughter to come home from school on her 2 weekdays off - NO! She made her stay at school, so she, the mom, could get her housework done, or errands run. That just about broke my heart. Truly it did. She also walked over for her at 5:55, right before it was supposed to end at 6.

These are cases of working parents that take it too far.

On the flip side I know of many who work the minimum they need to and hurry to get their kids from sitters or after school programs. And spend quality time with their children before they go to bed that evening. These parents are exempt from the above group, IMHO.

Across the board, it seems to me that there are some working parents who do not put their kids first. That is sad to me. I'm not suggesting they not work, but please spend quality time with their kids when off work.

Off MY soapbox now. Sigh.....

Mary

Well, I did one better I guess, I have no kids just the hubby, I probaly would raise my kids the same way I was raised and that wouldn't work in todays society.

I am 43 and consider myself very lucky to have been raised by a stay-at-home mom. All four of us kids had a terrific childhood! Couldn't imagine growing up in day care. I really applaud my sister and her husband who struggled to raise their 4 kids with one parent working out of the home and the other staying in the corporate world to provide benefits. Of course, having a parent in the home doesn't always translate to having the 'perfect' kid, but IMHO, it goes a long way towards shaping a child into a productive member of society.

My brother and I were raised at an In-Home Daycare.... with punishment... all ok'ed with my mother (yup, we got spankings with the wooden spoon).. to this day it made me a better person (I found out what NOT to do!)

Anyways, I see it now at the Y... parents will drop off their children for swimming lessons and then head up stairs to work out. Children will also get themselves into trouble for attention.

IMO... Time-outs are a good-for-nothing punishment.

Oh, I completely agree with this entire sentiment, especially in light of what's currently going on with my nephew.

pojo wrote:My brother and I were raised at an In-Home Daycare.... with punishment... all ok'ed with my mother (yup, we got spankings with the wooden spoon).. to this day it made me a better person (I found out what NOT to do!)

Anyways, I see it now at the Y... parents will drop off their children for swimming lessons and then head up stairs to work out. Children will also get themselves into trouble for attention.

IMO... Time-outs are a good-for-nothing punishment.

The dreaded wooden spoon...

I had a teacher in the seventh or eighth grade that instead of sending us to the office for talking or misbehaving, would quickly pull the chair out from under the desk and gives us a quick *smack* with the wooden spoon on top of the thigh.

Needless to say that it was one of the better behaved classrooms in the school.

One of my dads stories was about a teacher he had in high school..back in the 1940's. Act up in her class and u got a rap across the knuckles with a ruler. He swore that was one of the best teachers he ever had.