Where's the respect in American society? General people to people respect ended in society some time ago. When did it cease? I'm not really sure. But it starts with children, and overall there's a lack of discipline. Parents want to be their child's friend so badly, earnestly await their child's praise, their child's respect. My history teacher said, "As a child, I feared having my teachers call home. My parents would discipline me. Now, as a teacher, I fear calling a child's home because I'm afraid I'll get sued." Isn't that the story? Not my child's fault.
I am 17 years old and I listen to people in my classes laugh about how they drink and smoke and have sex with their friends and boy/girlfriends in people's garages, basements, basically anywhere. And they giggle about how naive their parents are. I am shocked. My parents would know if I were drinking, smoking etc. almost immediately. And there would be discipline. I would be grounded until I was 30--no joke.
So how did it get like this? Why is it parents are so blind to their child's faults--and in the process raising a disrespectul, petulant child? I think it has to do with popular parenting styles and the fact parents feel guilty about working while their child spends hours alone. In Europe, parents work too and there are probably children as disrespectful as America's, but the majority aren't. In Europe, especially France and Germany, unruly children aren't tolerated. Children under 9 aren't allowed into restaurants because adults would like to dine in peace. Children are treated like adults and expectations are set high. I think they've got the right idea.
I think to correct the problem of disrespect in the U.S., parents can no longer play their child's best friend, but rather their parent. It certainly won't correct everything, and we'll be a long way from Europe's society, but I think it would solve one of soceity's huge problem: disrespect.
One thing I noticed about problematic situations in which nothing gets done is that people start making sweeping generalizations. You make several. Kids these days...all they do is smoke, drink, have sex, etc etc. There's no discipline from parents these days...blah blah. I believe that things in this respect are not so different than how they used to be. The percentage of students who are motivated...who still fear their parents' discipline by the time they are 16-17 years old is smaller than those who do stupid things...who are "Rebelling." Isn't that what teens years are about anyway? I mean even I....as the valedictorian of my class and the patent nerdy kid who hardly ever drinks or smokes (okay okay so I admit the occasional indulgence...but hey I'm in college now)...had my rebellious times....even though for me rebelling was like...skipping one day of school to watch Harry Potter 4 on the day it came out. ^^. Making sweeping bitching comments such as yours won't really help any. And...maybe society isn't as messed up as you think.
<3 Scribble
I guarantee that with a little craft you could easily hide from your parents that you were drinking or smoking or having sex. All parents say, and some believe, that they are so in tune with their children they could immediately sense the list bit of intoxication or loss of virginity. This is just as bad as kids who think their parents are too stupid to find out sooner or later if they are stupid about it. Please don't buy into the whole parental mystique bullshit.
For decades kids have been getting loaded and having sex, centuries really. Everybody seems to think these are new problems when really they are just the same old problems. Kids have been dying in drunken car accidents and getting eachother pregnant forever. The numbers don't even fluctuate all that much. Up here, down there... whatever. The only thing I don't like is parents that have to take their kid's side all the time. Sometimes your kid really does fuck up, and you should tell him so, not blame whoever caught him.
Both my little brothers and I have been hiding things and sheltering our parents far more then they sheltered us of late. I have always kind of felt like I was protecting my parents from the seedier parts of the world instead of them protecting me.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memor mori, mahalo.
mmm good point.
~Native Pride~
In my community disrespect runs rampant. Children as little as 5 dont have respect for adults, cursing, and carrying on. The parents of these children are children themselves and their parents are not there to help or teach them.
Children are learning from what society shows them. The gangs, the drugs, the sex. They think it is fine. I have seen parents encouraging their child to have sex and stuff. I think it is not all of parents fault but society in general. If society had the same moral standards as there were in the 50s except with the female oppresion and stuff than we as people would not be so unruly.
Respect is almost non existent in certain communities.
Conformity is the jailor of freedom and the enemy of growth!~JFK
We as the next generation should not conform to what society wants us to. We should not fail like the previous generation has.
I am fed up with parnets who just want to be thier kid's friend that can buy them alchohal,ciggerates, and birthcontrol. I know a friend of mine who's 10 year old sister drinks more alchohal than she does, because her parents buy it for her! I think that a parnets job is to tell the child No. If they don't do that then the child learns no respect from anyone until something happens that is truly tragic. I think that in Europe they have the right idea, the adults work and are parents and they don't feel guilty about having a job. Honestly every parent who doesn't discipline thier kid just because they are afraid that they might be "uncool" really needs to sit down and be disciplned themselves.