"Shopdog" wrote in message
news:lVb2h.10056$gf5.2159@trndny01...
Honestly, I believe that it is the parents fault now days. Just look at
how many children go unsupervised for long periods of time. Remember back
when if an adult saw you screwing off, they'd walk up to you and "talk' to
you, or grab you by the ear and take you off to your parents. Now, if
someone did that they would be in court up to their ass. When I was young
just the thought of my father finding out I did something I wasn't
supposed to kept me from doing it. The phrase just you wait til your
father gets home was enough to make me wish it was only jail.



Not lack of supervision, but lack of value or morality, which is what keeps
you from stealing when nobody's around. As kids we played in great gaggles
for hours on end in isolated areas of the neighborhood as well as in the
street, where the expansion joints made a somewhat elongated diamond for
baseball. But we knew we could be sent home by any adult, and tried to put
on our most civilized demeanor in front of them, even the ones we hated,
because treating adults with deference was the _right_ thing to do.

All you have to do is look at the way adult/child relationships are
portrayed on the great broadcast teacher to understand those days are gone.
Who's the smart one, parent or child? Refreshing to see "leave it to
Beaver" episodes where the loving parents carefully allow just enough
freedom to sample the dangerous waters, while waiting to reel to safety.
Almost as if they knew something about the business of life through
experience.

If you don't have to defer even to the authority of your parents, imagine
what kind of a citizen you'll become.