Comments on Just Bloggled: When Life Gets a Little Baffling: A Question for Parents

I can't say I blame her, just from judging the way...

2010-01-12T23:46:42.853-05:00

I can't say I blame her, just from judging the way teenagers act when I go into stores. It's one of many reasons I prefer to shop online. I actually said the other day that for once I'm glad I went to high school when I did. As much as high school sucked, I think it would suck even worse now.

Just look at teen shows. I used to be a CW addict, back when it was the WB, even when I wasn't in high school. I felt I could relate to shows like Dawson's Creek and Gilmore Girls. I can't relate anymore to the likes of Gossip Girl and the new 90210 because my high school wasn't even remotely like the ones on those shows.

It makes me miss the days when the most controversial topic on high school TV was whether Donna Martin was going to be allowed to graduate.

Recent blog:=- Rules of Seven, a Thursday Edition

I'm going to say here what I said in my reply to y...

2009-11-09T11:35:29.000-05:00

I'm going to say here what I said in my reply to your other comments on the sister post. While I appreciate your response, please stop spamming my site. When you post under three different names like you have, it is still spam, even if your link did not show up. I know for a fact that you're the same person because I can see you IP address. Next time try leaving it all in one comment. Otherwise, I'm going to just hit delete or ban your IP all together. Thanks.

Recent blog:=- The Cable Company Can Kiss It

Them in charge of the world...scary thought. I'm h...

2009-11-07T19:43:20.000-05:00

Them in charge of the world...scary thought. I'm hoping we'll find life on another oxygen-based planet before it happens. That way we'll have somewhere to move when they take over the world.

Of course, I can't even find another neighborhood at the moment, let alone another planet. *DONT_KNOW*

Recent blog:=- Rules of Seven, a Thursday Edition

this stuff makes my blood boil. I have no clue wha...

2009-11-07T19:23:41.000-05:00

this stuff makes my blood boil. I have no clue what some parents are thinking. We're creating a generation of mini-narcissist (soon to be MAXI and in charge of things)

Recent blog:=- Mama Bear’s Panties are in a Wad Again

Everyone is depressing me. I was hoping the respon...

2009-11-06T13:04:23.000-05:00

Everyone is depressing me. I was hoping the response would be, "Oh, that's unique to your neighborhood. The kids in our neighborhood are well behaved and just as courteous as can be." Instead, it seems like the problem is everywhere so even if I could ever sell this house and move, I'd still end up living next door to out-of-control kids & their disrespectful parents.

I have so many scratches on my car, I can't keep track of where they all come from, but I wouldn't be surprised if some came from them. Every time I can't crank my car, I get paranoid that they did something to it, like stick something in the tail pipe. My dad and another commenter told me to install security cameras, but with my luck & the way the police work around here, I'd be the one who ends up getting in trouble for video taping someone without their permission.

Maybe it's something in the water? ;)

Recent blog:=- Rules of Seven, a Thursday Edition

We also have a lot of those destructive type brats...

2009-11-06T12:54:19.000-05:00

We also have a lot of those destructive type brats in my area also and the older kids like to scratch up our car and rip the side mirror off our neighbors vehicle. They are also defacing a lot of property hard to pinpoint any one thing that might be making all the youths every where nuts.

Recent blog:=- Is Social Networking Here To Stay?

That being said, Chandler would never do a fractio...

2009-11-06T12:46:15.000-05:00

That being said, Chandler would never do a fraction of the things the kids in this neighborhood do. He even says that those kids are crazy.

Recent blog:=- Rules of Seven, a Thursday Edition

I can't say I blame her, just from judging the way...

2009-11-06T12:44:26.000-05:00

Ugh. I went over characters & couldn't finish my t...

2009-11-06T12:41:02.000-05:00

Ugh. I went over characters & couldn't finish my thought in one comment.

Here's the rest of it:

I know Chandler often takes his sketch pad with him to shcool or a book because he finishes his assignments early and has nothing to do. I mean the kid could tell you the name of every dinosaur at 2 or 3. He's not dumb, but his teachers don't want to have to challenge him or anyone else so they just blame hyperactivity and the like. I think they'd rather have a classroom of Ridalin zombies than a classroom of kids who ask questions and challenge them as teachers. The teachers and parents don't seem to realize that sometimes kids just need their energies channeled into thinking during the school day and activities like soccer and karate after school, not a bottle of pills.

However, I do believe there are plenty of kids who legitimately have ADHD. I'm not discounting those cases. It just seems odd to me that almost every kid has it now when you never even heard of it when I was a kid.

Recent blog:=- Rules of Seven, a Thursday Edition

I'm going to probably get people yelling at me for...

2009-11-06T12:40:00.000-05:00

I'm going to probably get people yelling at me for this, but I think they slap the ADHD label on one too many kids these days. The minute a kid starts showing signs of hyperactivity, the parents take them to a doctor and get them on Ridalin so they don't have to deal with a hyper kid. My father and my mom's BF keeps trying to say my nephew has it because he's hyper. (My step-nephew has it, which is why my father is so quick to slap a label on Chandler, and supposedly my mom's BF's son has it. I question the latter bc I think the kid just acts out bc his father died from a brain tumor a couple of years ago & since then his mother acts like she's more interested in landing another man than helping her son with his grief, but that's another story. I really don't think he has it bc he was a calm kid before his dad's death.)

As for my nephew, he's a 9 year old boy. He's supposed to be hyper, and he's only hyper around kids his age. If he had ADHD, he wouldn't be able to sit still for hours at a time and play an entire video game from beginning to end or to draw all his cartoon creations. He wouldn't be able to spend hours at the library being quiet while he picks out science book after science book to take home. No, he'd be running around the library and causing a scene.

Anytime he gets in trouble in class for talking, I think he's just bored. Schools are so busy preparing for the next standardized exam that they don't challenge kids anymore. Plus, they've never tested Chandler for the gifted program because he had trouble pronouncing certain sounds in the first grade so they just figured he didn't have the IQ. Well, he had ear infections all the time, which probably accounted for the sounds, not his IQ. Plus, kids that age tend to have those problems. I did. I was in speech therapy in the first grade. I also got in trouble all the time for getting up & getting other books in class because I had read all those at the table. Finally in second grade they tested me & found out I had the reading level of a seventh grader or something like that. Once they put me in the gifted program, I stopped getting up & stopped getting in trouble. I didn't have ADHD. I wasn't stupid. I was just bored out of my mind.

Recent blog:=- Rules of Seven, a Thursday Edition

I feel for you. I can't imagine having to live wit...

2009-11-06T09:51:06.000-05:00

I feel for you. I can't imagine having to live with those kids around. I don't know what it is about kids these days (and parents) but the kids just kind of rule everything and do what they want without consequence. They have no manners or respect for others and they think the world revolves around them. If my kids did even a quarter of what your neighbor's kids have done, they would never see the light of day again. Ever. I just don't understand people today. What ever happened to actually parenting your children?

My daughter (she's 17) even said the other day that she hates teenagers because of how they act these days. She wouldn't be caught dead behaving the way they do. I thought that was pretty funny.

Oh man did you get it ALL right. This could have b...

2009-11-05T20:47:33.000-05:00

Oh man did you get it ALL right. This could have been written by me before we moved. And I will tell you another thing. The excuses I have gotten several times is, "my kids have ADHD and I can't control them". Yep, the cops won't do anything either unless it's really illegal. Anyway, yep you got us all riled up but we stand behind you 100%.

Recent blog:=- Where can I sell stuff online?

For what, my dogs to go after them? Then my dogs g...

2009-11-05T12:43:59.000-05:00

For what, my dogs to go after them? Then my dogs get put to sleep, and I get slapped with a dangerous dog fine and possible jail time (my ex boss would preside so I'm sure there would be some jail time as he hates me) and a civil suit from the parents because it would be my fault somehow that they trespassed.

I actually have to keep a padlock on the gate because, when the house next door was in foreclosure for 2 years, the kids would gather in the backyard and try to break the gate open (kicking, hitting, shaking it). I have to hunt down the key now just to take the garbage around.

Yeah, it's fun to think about, especially considering the dog they're afraid of most is the chihuahua, but it would never happen. I'm not risking my dogs' life over it, and they'd probably just show up the next day at mail time with their conveniently unleashed pit bull. There is so many pit bulls around here I can't even walk my dogs.

I don't think that all pit bulls are bad. I believe in the Dog Whisperer mentality. There are no bad dogs, just bad dog owners. However, given the way these parents treat their kids, I have no reason to think that they don't treat the pit bulls the same way and therefore cause the animals' worst traits to come out.

Recent blog:=- A Question for Parents

Thanks. I think I'm going to need it. Otherwise, I...

2009-11-05T12:38:18.000-05:00

Thanks. I think I'm going to need it. Otherwise, I may end up in a padded cell soon. At least there won't be any kids there, though with my luck the local mental hospital is where the parents on this street work.

Actually, I think one of them used to work at Petsmart, where I spend more money than the grocery store. When I went to checkout, I was just as nice as can be, not realizing who she was. She, however, told me to have "a nice damn day."

I reported her to management. They said they disciplined her. I don't know if that meant firing her or what because I wasn't home when they called back. I was actually working then, but I guess that only added fuel to the fire.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, huh? I'm just scared to find out what these kids will be like 10 years from now. Hopefully, I'll be long gone from this town by then, but it looks like from the comments that the problem isn't unique to my town. *DONT_KNOW*

Recent blog:=- A Question for Parents

Thanks. I'll admit that I had a little meltdown ye...

2009-11-05T12:32:05.000-05:00

Thanks. I'll admit that I had a little meltdown yesterday. I just get so mad because every time I think the little brats have grown out of the behavior & forgotten about me, they do something again, and thanks to a PD that doesn't care anymore than the parents, I can't do a thing about it.

This is my first house. It should be a pleasant experience, and it was for about a year. Then the little heathens 2 doors down moved in, and it all went to hell in a hand basket. Like the kids on the other side were nice as could be the first year. The parents never watched them, but they weren't rude. Then they started hanging around with the ones from 2 doors in the other direction, & they've never been the same since.

It's bad when you report them to the HOA, and the HOA knows exactly who you're talking about w/o you having to give them names or addresses. They've even sent out community letters about watching your kids after the sewer incident and an incident in which the kids tore up all the landscaping in the common areas. I'm sure those parents just tossed it aside and said it wasn't their kids.

Now here we are years later, and it's not getting any better. Just a few weeks ago, a couple of boys (probably the same 2 from yesterday) set the trees that border the outside of the subdivision on fire. As close as our houses are and as windy as it was, they could have burned down half the subdivision before the FD arrived. A subdivision around the corner that has the same house plans had a fire in one house a couple of years ago. By the time the FD put it out, it had spread to 6 houses because the houses were only 5 to 10 feet apart like this one. But who cares right? It's just harmless fun, playing with matches and all. Boys will be boys...

Recent blog:=- A Question for Parents

You've got a camera? takes videos? Use it. And I...

2009-11-05T12:23:01.000-05:00

You've got a camera? takes videos? Use it.

And I'm sorry to say that all this negligent parenting started with my generation. The "do your own thing/hippie dippy" generation" raised their kids without rules, so as not to crush the poor 'ittle things spirit or some such crap. Those kids, in turn, raised their kids the same way. And please, please do not get me started on the concept of personal responsibility - it appears no one thinks any one should have it.

And then in the 90's it was all about self-esteem - god forbid a kid should be told they're deficit in some way.

Boy you certainly hit a nerve with this post. There has got to be some kind of resolution to your problem. I read your tweets and I get so worried about you.

We're living in a "child-centered" world these day...

2009-11-05T06:59:00.000-05:00

We're living in a "child-centered" world these days. Parents think the world revolves around their kids and they cater to their every whim and fancy. It's disgusting honestly and not helping the kids in any way.

In fact they're growing up to act like some athletes act. Entitled!! Why, because they've never been told NO! Everyone is "yessing" them all the time.

What parents are really doing is setting the table for their child to be contrary, disrespectful, and ultimately abusive.

This hit a nerve because we've been talking about this a lot. One of the worst things about being a parent is dealing with other parents!!

Good luck.

I know you shouldn't actually do this but it's fun...

2009-11-05T06:04:55.000-05:00

I know you shouldn't actually do this but it's fun to think about...
What if you left your gate open just a tad...

Recent blog:=- Christmas Scratch Off Game Tickets Giveaway 11/10

I can't disagree with you there. Can you imagine w...

2009-11-05T01:00:34.000-05:00

I can't disagree with you there. Can you imagine what the kids' kids will be like 20 years from now? The parents need to buy one of those quick meals cookbooks or just do like everyone else and go to McDonalds. Then they'd probably just find a way to swindle Ronald McDonald's out of a free Big Mac.

I know I probably don't have a lot of room to judge, not having kids myself, but some things just seem like common sense to me, like respecting your elders, not destroying property, playing in your own yard, not the yard of the neighbor who has no kids, picking up your candy wrappers, etc. They were common sense to me at 8. They're common sense to me now.

If I thought I could get cable and high speed internet there, I'd find me a deserted island to move to tomorrow.

Recent blog:=- A Question for Parents

Hi , Staci... These type of parents and kids are...

2009-11-05T00:38:15.000-05:00

Hi , Staci...

These type of parents and kids are everywhere... I have some neighbors who encourage their kids to 'snack' from the local grocery (they rush into the store in groups and flick packets of biscuits, chips etc..) parents work all hours and when they come home they are tired to deal with hungry kids - so this is their solution !!! I can see them becoming bank robbers in future. If any child gets caught, the parents rush there and blast the storekeeper, and throw some money on his face.... such petty behavior is being passed on instead of good manners and values. It's a sorry plight...

Recent blog:=- Mushroom, sausages and mashed potatoes

You don't have to be Dr. Phil to know that kids ne...

2009-11-04T23:32:05.000-05:00

You don't have to be Dr. Phil to know that kids need parents, not friends. They have plenty of the latter.

Oh, the parents here lead by example. They're just as rude as the kids so I'm not surprised. They just need to change the example instead of pointing fingers at everyone else.

The worst thing is that the worst parents (e.g., the ones that allowed the 2 year old to ride his tricycle down the middle of the road without anyone watching him, the ones whose kids go into the sewers, etc.) are the ones that keep having more and more of them. Whoever keeps throwing their condom wrappers in my front yard obviously aren't them. They just keep popping more out, but they won't do anything to guide or discipline or do anything else to the ones they already have.

Meanwhile, these kids are being bad influences on the few good kids with mothers who care in the neighborhood. I was working in the yard one day when one mother from the back of the subdivision came stomping down to the house next door because she caught her grade school son with one of the girls in that house. From what I could gather, they weren't just innocently pecking each other on the cheek. Basically, they had reached a level that people didn't reach until jr. high when I was a kid. She was fuming so at least she cared enough to notice. I got my butt inside because I was scared someone was going to get killed, but I don't think the parents ever came to the door. Not surprised.

I'm not asking the parents around here to be perfect. It would just be nice if they acted like parents from time to time instead of the cheerleaders to their kids' reign of terror.

Recent blog:=- A Question for Parents

I hate to say it, but the police force here is a j...

2009-11-04T23:20:41.000-05:00

I hate to say it, but the police force here is a joke. All they care about is speeding tickets and DUI's because those bring in the most revenue. I should know. I used to be the law clerk for the chief judge. 95 percent of our cases were DUI's.

When I called them last time, the officer said that the mother down the street said I should have talked to her first. I told the officer that I had tried that before and she threatened me. He said and I quote, "I don't want to hear it. It's just a matter of he said, she said."

Are you kidding me? Aren't most nonviolent crimes that way? Not every crime involves a body, but I guess those are the only ones that count. Had she actually gone through with her threat, then he'd care. Until then, what she did doesn't count.

I'm surprised it was the boys this time. The girls in this neighborhood are even worse. You should hear the foulness that comes out of their mouths. I wouldn't have even dreamed of talking to adults like that at that age. I'm talking anywhere from kindergarten to middle school. Plus, the way they dress...Now I'm by no means conservative. I always had 2 piece bathing suits growing up, but they were appropriate for my age (covered plenty even though 2 piece) & worn ONLY at the pool or beach. The girls around here wear skirts and shirts that barely cover their parts in summer, plus high heels and wedge heels. They then walk around with the butt and the nonexistent breasts out like they're 25 year old hookers, and their parents don't care.

Go online, people. There are registered sex offenders everywhere. But again, they don't care enough to do so. God only knows what kind of pervs they're talking to online, but if something bad ever happens, I'll guarantee you those parents will blame everyone but themselves.

And if they talk that disrespectfully to me, how do you think they talk to their teachers, the police, or anyone else in authority? Probably the same way. Then they'll grow into adults that talk and act the same way. The cycle just continues.

Recent blog:=- A Question for Parents

I don't have any kids. That's the whole problem. T...

2009-11-04T23:10:53.000-05:00

I don't have any kids. That's the whole problem. The longer I live here, the least likely that will ever be. I don't even want my dogs around these people, let alone children.

Chandler used to want to play with them when he'd visit. My mom and I bother were like, "Nuh-uh. Ain't gonna happen." We were scared he'd get run over or lost in the storm drain. That's where those kids play.

Recent blog:=- A Question for Parents

Girl, if you can figure that out, please share. I ...

2009-11-04T23:03:17.000-05:00

Girl, if you can figure that out, please share. I am so sick and stinking tired of the excuses and explanations. NO one seems to care at all. The saddest part is that the bad things, like pregnancy and shootings, are no longer surprising. Makes you double think about having more, huh?

You just can't get me started on this whole subjec...

2009-11-04T22:49:51.000-05:00

You just can't get me started on this whole subject because I will probably have a coronary. Here's my theory in a nutshell.... For whatever reason (blame the media, video games, vaccinations, red dye #5,etc...) I truly believe that parents today are afraid of disciplining their children for fear that their children will not like them. I can't think of any other reason why children just run amok and the parents just let the chaos unfold without reacting. When they do finally react, it's done with anger and is usually not constructive. You actually have to take time and teach your child how to behave, show them with your actions, teach them to be kind and understanding. Kids need guidance and if a parent is unwilling to provide it and actually put the energy forth that comes with the responsibility of being a parent, then you have a pretty unhappy child, and a miserable parent. I know this doesn't hold true for every situation, and trust me, I am not a perfect parent, but I am a work in progress. I could go on and on, probably write a book with all that I see, even in my own family, but I will leave it with, parents have an obligation and a deep responsibility to guide their children and teach them. It's all part of the package!