Kids Today

Published on May 3, 2004 By marc mullins In Blogging

Have you ever stopped and thought about the troubles with kids today?
The violence in schools, the kids getting in trouble with the law.

This is just my opinion but I think it all stems back to the stopping of
Corporal punishment.

Look back in our day when we were in school, if we did something wrong we got paddled.
So we didn’t even think about doing the things kids do today. If that wasn’t enough we knew when
We got home what our parents would do to us. So we just didn’t do it.

Now a kid knows that if they do something wrong in school they get time out of school….hmmm let’s think about that for a minute….a kid skips school for 3 days and gets caught, so they suspend him from school
For 3 days…..isn’t that what the kid wanted in the first place was not to be in school???
Then they also know that their parents really can’t do anything to them because all they have to do is call the police and the parents get in trouble for correcting their kids……

I say bring back corporal punishment and a lot of the problems with kids today will stop!
That’s just my opinion.
I think i should ad that i think there is a difference between correcting your child and abuseing them....... i feel very strongly against child abuse.

Comments

Poetmom99

on May 03, 2004

Look back in our day when we were in school, if we did something wrong we got paddled.
So we didn’t even think about doing the things kids do today. If that wasn’t enough we knew when
We got home what our parents would do to us. So we just didn’t do it.

It wasn't a fear of getting paddled or a fear of what my parents would do that kept me from misbehaving when I was in school. It was the same thing that has so far kept my children from getting into trouble...I was raised from the beginning to know what was right and what was wrong, what behavior was acceptable and what wasn't....by the time I went to school, that was just a fact of life, it wasn't even something I had to stop and think about.

marc mullins

on May 03, 2004

i agree with that......but how were you taught right from wrong were you not spanked for doing wrong.................but yes you make a good point

marc mullins

on May 03, 2004

ok i dont think i expressed myself very well, i wasnt saying kids in our day didnt do things because of fear.......i think it was because we knew there would be Consequences.................(spanking)

mikimouse

on May 03, 2004

lol. So abusing and hitting the kids will 'straighten them out"?

Be serious. It's because of their culture, the video games they play, the crappy underfunded education systems that are collapsing all over North America, the parents who are too busy to love their kids, the parents who don't love their kids, the hate their kids grow up with, the amount of broken homes in America, the fact that drugs are on every corner of a child's life...The answer?: HOME SCHOOLING!

JillUser

on May 03, 2004

Marc, I think part of the problem today is a lot of parents aren't around as much to teach or discipline. Most of the moms stayed home when I was growing up. Just knowing that your mom would be at the school instantly if you screwed up was a good insentive to behave. My mom knew where I was and who I was with at all times. She knew my friends and their parents. She talked to me about everything imaginable at home at helped out at school often so she knew what the teachers were like.

I agree that all of the power has been taken away from teachers and kids abuse that fact. There are always a couple of kids in every group that need a physical reminder to watch their Ps and Qs. Teachers can't smack you with a ruler or send you to the principal for a paddling anymore. Kids walk all over them. In my son's kindergarten class, the kids walked all over the teacher........literally!

I actually heard an 8yr old tell her mother once that if she spanked her she would call social services and tell them that she got beaten. kids don't realize the gravity of such things. The sad thing is, it works. If my kids pull that, I will take my chances and explain to them that they better not do that sort of thing unless they want to be taken away from their family and be put in foster care.

Things are pretty screwed up these days and too many young kids don't know the meaning of respect.

Poetmom99

on May 03, 2004

Sure, there are consequences...but those consequences don't have to be spanking...my kids don't get spanked, and never have...they get privileges taken away, they get grounded, they get time out, etc.

I actually heard an 8yr old tell her mother once that if she spanked her she would call social services and tell them that she got beaten.

I've had my now 14 yr old threaten to call them on me for disciplining her, not spanking, and I've handed her the phone, while asking her if she thought she would get as many things and privileges in a foster home. She wound up hanging up the phone!

BlueDev

on May 03, 2004

Don't really agree with the fault being a lack of corporal punishment (though I don't think an occasional spanking is anything like abuse). I think it is, at least in large part, a result of a societal trend of abdicating responsibility. We see it everywhere we look. No one wants to accept that something is their fault. They want to sue McDonald's or Nabisco because they ate too much, they want to sue their doctor because they didn't follow the health recommendations they were given. Parents want to blame music and video games, movies and TV for children's violence (and while I do think there is excessive violence and sex in the media I believe it is a result of the very same thing, no one taking responsibility).

Teach children that every action has a consequence, and demonstrate it in your own life. If your child sees you acting inappropriately make sure they also can see that you have to suffer the (at least some of) consequences. Until we as parents learn to accept responsibility for our actions, and teach our children the same, no amount of spanking will fix the problem.

marc mullins

on May 03, 2004

all of you have very good points and i agree with you all.......its good to hear different points of view.............but as others here have said i dont think an occasional spanking on the butt is abuse.......hitting a child anywhere else is........but as i said before Thats my opinion......

thank you all for your imput......i dont agree that video games and tv are the cause for anything......i agree with bluedev its noone taking responsibility................

and i agree with jilluser all the power has been taken away from the teachers and the parents..........

as for my children they get time outs they loose privledges, and they get grounded, then if that doesnt work they will get a swat on the butt....................ON THE BUTT........i dont think that makes me a bad person, my mother did it to me and i love her for it.

Dan Kaschel

on May 03, 2004

Marc, I agree with you. Below a certain age, there simply isn't a firm grasp of right and wrong, and physical pain (but not to the point of abuse) is a strong expression of displeasure. A mixture of love and discipline is the best way to teach, and with some children, the only way.

Unfortunately, people are oversensitive about child abuse, and do things like calling spanking "hitting" or "abuse," which makes them hard to refute since really all you have to go against is dogma. Spanking is, I believe, on the way out, for better or for worse.

And from the looks of things, it's definitely for worse.

~Buddha

BlueDev

on May 03, 2004

Marc, I entirely respect your opinion. I hope you don't think otherwise. I also have no condemnation for occasional spanking. To be honest I have used it a couple time, but my wife and I decided that it wasn't for us. It was a personal decision and certainly not one I would try to force on you or anyone else.

Just so it is clear my disagreement was not with the use of corporal punishment. Rather I was disagreeing with the idea that lack of corporal punishment is at the base of the problems. And I have no problem agreeing to disagree with someone, so I hope there were no hard feelings. I think it was a good blog, and something worth discussing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

greywar

on May 03, 2004

It's because of their culture, the video games they play

Are you serious? you think these factors are above the importance of consistent systems of rewards and punishments? Children crave consistent rules and will test you just to see if you are serious with them. I have watched my step-sisters kids grow up with no punishment for too long to even consider that. Her kids are 1. in prison 2. knocked up at age 13 3. a drunken failure of a woman. *Every* permissive parent I have seen has had tremendous bahavior problems with their kids. As my daughter grew up we spanked her when other mthods did not work, by age 4 we almost never had to do it again as she knew that when we set a standard we *meant* it. There were never any "false alarms" to confuse her.

Poetmom99

on May 04, 2004

Parents want to blame music and video games, movies and TV for children's violence (and while I do think there is excessive violence and sex in the media I believe it is a result of the very same thing, no one taking responsibility).

My theory on violence and sex in music, video games, movies and TV has always been...if it's not appropriate for your children, don't let them listen, play or watch....if they aren't subjected to it, then it can't influence them!

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