Permissive parents: Curb your brats

This has been pissing me off lately, too.

1. I was in a restaurant the other day, and the couple at the next booth had a kid who would suddenly--in response to nothing in particular--SHRIEK at the top of his lungs. Once every 2-3 minutes. And they were completely oblivous and did nothing to stop it.

2. I went to a 11:20pm movie the other night, and someone had brought a toddler. Seriously? I think movie theaters should introduce a "no babes in arms" policy for any non-G-rated film, and for any film starting after 8pm.

3. If you can't control your kid, please don't bring him to the expensive steakhouse Friday night at 8:00pm. My friends and I did not want to wait 90 minutes for a table and buy a $35 meal only to have your brat scream and cry through all our attempts at conversation. We'd all be happier if you went to Chuck-E-Cheese.

It's called COURTESY. Have some. You are not entitled to let your kid run wild at the expense of other people. You get ZERO break for that. Police that shit immediately or stay the fuck home.

Well, if you start with the premise that they're "little monsters," you're already doomed.

The underlying problem is that not enough parents ever bother defining what it means to be a parent (see evenflow's post).

Kids are not pets. They're not toys. They're not status symbols. They're not something you have because society/your parents expects you to or because "Well, my friends all had kids, so..."

Raising kids is the most important job in the world, and it's left exclusively to amateurs.

And it worked, but I don't feel it has to be that harsh, but yeah, similar for me. Neighbor disciplines me, then parents.

Not really. I have my son every other weekend and full time in the summer. I'm able to teach him manners and respect and acceptable behavior in that time. I've been worried with the amount of time he spends with his cousins who just turned 13 (I've always had issues with the way my sister-in-law raises her children), but it seems that enough positive reinforcement from me is enough to curb the negative impact on him when he is not with me.

If they're somebody else' kids, to me they are "little monsters". That's said tongue in cheek BTW.

I can't even begin to imagine where you got the impression I abondoned my child.

Perhaps you need to check your self-righteousness at the door.

And fuck your food launch you fat fucking clutz. Quit blaming your fat stupid antics on a two year old.

Too often, that's the reason people have kids. It's a routine. 72 hours into changing diapers, they're tired and they've already given up (as though diaper changing is the worst they're going to face). With most ambivalent parents, the kid should be so lucky to be treated as well as a pet, a toy or a status symbol. Those all get some maintenance.

Thing is, so many parents come home after work and have it in their heads that the really important job, insofar as their spawn is concerned, is done, because the last 8 hours paid some bills and put some food on the table. If you're a parent, the tough part of the job gets started when you walk into your house after work. So many parents from my generation (and after) didn't understand that before they had kids, and resent being faced with it now that it's in front of them. It's why so many children have credit cards, game systems that put my old Atari to shame, cell phones, and state-of-the-art everything. Parents are buying "time off", and kids are smart enough to recognize the pattern that gets them the material stuff and freedom that they want.

There are a whole lot of impersonal parent/child relationships out there. Not all, but plenty enough to observe readily, plenty enough to be a problem.

The hell there isn't.

When our kids were little and they acted up in public, we'd remove them from "public" by taking them outside or away from the crowd and let them know in no uncertain terms that if they didn't behave themselves, there would be dire consequences once we got home.

They always straightened up and behaved themselves after that. And this was when they were 3 and 4 years old.

We've always been complimented on how well-behaved (and well-spoken, echoing evenflow's ban on "baby talk") our daughters are. I think part of that is because my wife and I aren't the type to ever "negotiate" with children and most people aren't accustomed to that these days. Now, my girls have turned into two young women (20 and 15, respectively) that I'm proud to call my kids. And I consider them two of my favorite people in the world.

Aww.. I think apostle got a little butthurt cuz I called his dumbass a fat fuck.

Really fucking low, apostle. Does your wife know you're such a miserable failure at being a Christian?

You misunderstand my statement. It is written as if the "you" is an offended party, not the parents. Hence my reference to "the oblivious parents".

I think if you--as an offended third party--try to take someone else's kids out of the area for a "Time Out", there will be fisticuffs and/or an Amber Alert issued!

I agree. Her actions are shameful.

Does yours know you're not a good Jew?

Dad was a product of his times. I loved him and admired him, but sometimes when he opened his mouth I wanted to smack him.

Friends of ours have a 2 1/2 year old boy who's insanely well-behaved. He doesn't throw tantrums, doesn't scream, knows a lot of words, and says please and thank you (though most of the time he needs some prompting).

Whatever they're doing is what I want to do when the time comes.

BTW, I'm quite surprised that Apostle didn't draw on the toddler and double-tap him after the tray-flying incident....

I fully admit I'm a bad Jew. Yesterday I ate a sandwich with four different kinds of ham on it.

I also, however, have never claimed to be a pious Christian with one side of my mouth, then called people faggot and child abandoner with the other.

It's like you think saving yourself for marriage makes you some kind of good person.

When our kids were little, some childless friends of ours were always chiding/teasing us for not being able to go out with them to dinner and to bars and such all the time. We'd tell them that we didn't feel like dumping our kids off on a babysitter that often.

Now that they've got young kids and ours are old enough to take care of themselves, we're the ones who tease them about not "coming out with us".

BTW, one of those couples is the one with the two hellion boys. If both of those kids had their bottoms smacked a little when they were younger, they'd be better behaved today, I think.

The other couple is a lot like my wife and I and their kids are great to be around.


Also the great thing about raising your kids to be respectful and behave themselves in public is that they then recognized bad behavior in other kids and, more importantly, in other kids' parents. Our daughters have commented on it for years when they see it.

Is Garamet stupid? Does she not realize that in the 30's most parents would have either fought or had a relative who fought the dirty Germans? Many would have had relatives killed by them? Does she not realize that the Germans were rearming and about to take the world to war?

And if she realizes that, why is her question "who" taught your dad to call Germans "dirty Germans?" A better question would be "who didn't"?!

Kids will be kids but their parents need to put them into line. Nearly every plane journey I've had in recent years has resulted in some little shit sitting in the seat behind kicking away at my seat. And their jackass parents are nowhere to be seen. The parents bagged themselves some nice quiet seats some place else while they can blissfully ignore their kids running riot.
Airlines should really start doing 'famlies' and 'no families' type tickets for those of us who do not bring aboard kids and don't want to put up with those brats belonging to someone else.

Oh, and cinemas should BAN children from late night showings. I was at a midnight showing of the recent X-Men movie and some bright spark in the audience had brought her BABY to the showing! Within 5 minutes of the start of the movie the kid started screaming. Some parents seriously leave their common sense at home when they take their kids out.

re: Little monsters.
They are. The default setting for a child (and I speak from memory of being one and being among them, AND from seeing others' kids) is "little monster." They have to be taught to behave well in society. If not taught, they will, almost without exception, be selfish, willfull, destructive, inconsiderate, narcissistic forces of evil.

It's only adults who learned in millennia past that society functions best when its members are cooperative, polite, and don't give reason to try to kill each other. Little monsters have to be taught that.

Grabbing a kids hair is wrong. Glad you whomped that woman.

Okay, but it illustrates the old "apple doesn't fall too far from the tree" scenario.

Either he heard the expression at home, or he heard it from friends and no one at home corrected him.

Your grandfather's reaction (not "Watch your mouth when you're talking to an adult," but "I told you to stay off his land!") suggests he heard it at home.

His mistake, in your grandfather's eyes, was not the insult, but the trespass. If he'd shouted at Karl from the sidewalk, he'd have gotten away with it.

I love it how people who have no kids are such experts on how to raise them.

I agree completely.

But, I'd like to add that a child can be on their best behavior and still be able to run around and will still annoy people who don't have kids.

But you can still tell which kid is an utter shit of a bastard, and those that are just being a kid having fun. The utter shit will be an ass to others, while the good kid having fun will not.

Did you tell not to be pulling on her own child's hair also?

I don't discipline someone else's child, but I have verbally disciplined a few parent's over the years.

Yes, but that's not the child's fault. It's the fault of the parent.

Happened to me all the time growing up.

Oddly enough those are the same people I make sure to visit every time I am home and don't bother waiting for them to come to the door, instead just knocking, opening, and saying "It's Me."