What a waste!!

[Ginevive]

Some kids these days, spared from being spanked, belted, and the like, are never taught that there are consequences to their bad behavior, and that those consequences are undesirable. Take this IDIOT on a show I watched recently, about real-life situations in prison (san Quentin.) The genius was about to be released after completing his sentence, and they asked him "would he be back?" LOL.. he said... "I don't know."
Any human with half of a brain cell, after wasting away in jail for 5 years like he did, would stop and assess things. Why am I doing these things that'll land me in a place where my very freedom, loved ones, are taken away? Greed.. stemming from being a kid who always got what it wanted.. I guess.
I have an acquaintence, and I swear her kid will be the next Jeffrey Dahmer. The kid gets away with murder.. he will openly defy his mom at a store, say; he'll do bad things to get glee frmo being yelled at! This I am sure is being acted out in many households in America.. it puts fear into my heart knowing that these kids will one day be adults with cars, money, and access to drugs (if not already!)
I know a man who was imprisoned for 10 years for bank robbery. He had a Heeellluva time making honest money at any job when he got out.. big deal. He formed his own business and is now doing much better than the average joe. Some people can learn from our penal system I guess.. others might as well be locked up for life.
Are people de-evolving in intelligence though? To readily admit that they might go back to prison after having wasted years of their only life in there?!!?!

[Blu Mongoose]

Yeah, I understand the parents suffer from DFS pressure. I will not back down from spanking my kids or grandkids. Abuse is a totally different story. Many parents need to get a backbone or stop having kids. Why have kids if you can't stand up for whats right?

We rented Kelly a car from Enterprise. The key would not come out of the ignition and the locks didn't work. They told her she would have to take it to the garage and have it fixed!!! They had no cars available. Can you believe that????

She's driving my truck now. I went down and insisted on a refund for her. Maybe they should read their own policies on roadside assitance!!!!! They gaurantee a replacement car if that one doesn't work. But heaven forbid if you bring it back with a one inch scuff mark!! You will pay!!

[Ginevive]

Argh. Not only the whole thing that happened.. now they're giving you grief about a rental car! I swear, when it rains, it pours. I am glad that you stuck up for her and demanded a refund. What an insane world this is sometimes..
I had my share of punishments as a kid! My grandma swatted me with a coathanger once.. looking back, I completely deserved it. It was simple.. do something bad, you will get caught, and you will regret it. These days it's let's do whatever we want for so many kids..

[NightLad]

Neither I nor my sister were ever spanked, and certainly never belted. We did have a ‘time out’ chair that worked pretty well, even though I had fantasies of chopping it into firewood when I missed part of Care Bears. However, my parents were far from lax in their parenting. I saw my first ‘horror’ movie (“Pet Cemetery,” although I could only finish half of it) at the age of 12, and junk-food was a no-no.

In contrast, I knew a boy who was punished with spanking whenever he’d do something wrong, and he is currently unable to return to the country due to outstanding warrants. His parents were also quite good folks, and I don’t fault them for spanking him if they felt that was what he needed to lean,* but clearly somewhere along the way he didn’t.

People are individuals and while I think we should definitely be asking the parents where they were at the time, the kids should be held just as accountable. Any good parents out there with a troubled teen can tell you that even when you bend over backwards to help, they can still go off and make the wrong choices. “You can lead a horse to water…” and all that, I guess.

* I believe parents should be able to raise their children as they see fit, including spanking, within reason. Obviously outright abuse shouldn’t be acceptable, but I understand that is not what we are talking about.

[Blu Mongoose]

Neither I nor my sister were ever spanked, and certainly never belted. We did have a ‘time out’ chair that worked pretty well, even though I had fantasies of chopping it into firewood when I missed part of Care Bears. However, my parents were far from lax in their parenting. I saw my first ‘horror’ movie (“Pet Cemetery,” although I could only finish half of it) at the age of 12, and junk-food was a no-no.

In contrast, I knew a boy who was punished with spanking whenever he’d do something wrong, and he is currently unable to return to the country due to outstanding warrants. His parents were also quite good folks, and I don’t fault them for spanking him if they felt that was what he needed to lean,* but clearly somewhere along the way he didn’t.

People are individuals and while I think we should definitely be asking the parents where they were at the time, the kids should be held just as accountable. Any good parents out there with a troubled teen can tell you that even when you bend over backwards to help, they can still go off and make the wrong choices. “You can lead a horse to water…” and all that, I guess.

* I believe parents should be able to raise their children as they see fit, including spanking, within reason. Obviously outright abuse shouldn’t be acceptable, but I understand that is not what we are talking about.

Great point. Not all kids learn from spanking. Even the best intentions raising a child backfires. Yet, as I watch peoples children scream and cuss them, out running all hours of the night, I have to think it's because for most cases, the parents have lost touch with who is supposed to run the household. In most bad cases they had coddled the child too much creating a self centered little monster with no regard for others. Kudos to the parent that can raise a good child without being physical.

[kplunk]

I actually had a woman yell at me for holding a door open. Told me she could get it herself!!

Ha thats funny. I haven't yelled at anyone yet but sometimes it does annoy me when people hold the door. In a situation where you aren't close yet and you almost feel like you have to hurry your pace possibly even throw in a jog because someone is waiting on you holding the door for you. but if I am right behind the person of course the door hold is nice but I always have my hand out.

As for city's being the problem I grew up in a town of less than 10,000 and its just as bad if not worse than the city of 650,000 I live in now.