Thursday, April 13, 2006

Who should discipline the children

What has happened to parenting in this world? Where have manners gone, where has respect gone, where has the ability to simply be a parent gone? Why are so many capable of 'having' children but so incapable of teaching and raising them? Why do we have reality tv shows like "Nanny 911" and "Super Nanny" that teach adults how to not allow their children to run the household? I watch those shows everytime they're on and am just amazed at how utterly clueless some of these people really are. Are they terrified of the wrath of their child? Or is it the authorities that be that have put the fear of God into people? Or has it simply turned into a society of spoiling kids so rotten that there is no help for them. Who knows.

I had a really nice discussion/debate with a woman about the 'hugging' post I did (in the comment section). She is a former school teacher who elected to stay at home with her children. Kudos to her. Although her and I agreed on many things, the issue at hand was a little more dicey. In the end though, I believe that all is good.

Anyway, I happened across this article today and immediately wanted to write about it. Gee, shocker.

"Parents call on teachers to help with discipline in the home

I just don't get it. Why must 'parents' call upon teachers to help them discipline their kids AT HOME. Maybe that's what needs to be done in some cases but in doing so the teachers put themselves at risk for even MORE lawsuits, correct? If a teacher tells a parent to take a child's car away, or to ground them or some other thing and that child decides to OD on drugs or worse, take their lives, who would be the first person to blame? Well of course the school or teacher.
Maybe my logic is a little far fetched here but I think I've made my point, it just opens the door for more lawsuits, someone other than the parent to blame for the child misbehaving.

We have had teachers and counselors try to tell us how to do things in our home but they are very surprised to learn that we have most often then not done so and more. I am speaking of privelages of course. What is really sad though is that they ARE surprised. Surprised that we are actually taking the steps that parents should be taking already!

We have good kids. Of course they are most definately far from perfect, if they were perfect I would wonder but there is just no such thing as the perfect human being. Our kids are respectful, they are loving and caring, they are as responsible as we have made them which in the case of kids is pretty good, and they follow the rules for the most part. Well, when they aren't at home anyway. Bottom line is they are good human beings and their teachers have always complimented us on what nice respectful kids we have. I love to hear that because then I know my kids have learned.

So, is this a burden and a responsibility that should be added to teachers? For myself, no, absolutely not. They are educated to teach my kids academics, not to parent my kids. And most importantly, do I want a teacher to tell me how to discipline my kids? NO!! I'm pretty confident in my parenting skills and take them very seriously. If I want help with something, I am not afraid to ask for it but in most cases Pat and I do the best that we can. I just wish others would do the same!



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