Letters to the Editor
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the lil innocents
Hey, there, we all know every child is innocent, special and equal, including the slow ones who should never know it, the cruel ones who must really be suffering from low self-esteem (they always seemed to feel pretty happy and confident after they beat kids up, ask anyone) and the petty ones who enter politics, innocents all.
All possible defeats sanitized and wrapped in bubble wrap thus eliminating competition and damaging comparisons such as the example of win-less soccer games, so no one has hurt feelings).
Parents litigate for that A the kid failed to get in high school.
And then they hit college, and binge drinking is up, suicide and depression also show signs of increase.
Can we please just remove those inflatable baloons in the bowling alleys and let the kids throw a gutter ball once a while, and then maybe call him some names after.
It won't fix everything, but it'd make me happy.
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Huh?
OK, we're experiencing some sort of weird pop psychology/political correctness backlash here but please, are we really really hankering after the good old days when parents felt free to treat their kids with less respect than they would treat any other being on the planet? Oh, and I wonder why a whole generation decided that they didn't want to do to their kids what had been done to them? Because it had worked to incredibly well for them?
Well, I suppose that if you really think things were better back in the good old days, feel free to insult your children, hold your heads up high with the satisfaction of a nice cutting verbal left hook. Just please stay away from my kid. Thanks.
PS: By the way, the nasty little s**ts who bully my polite kid at school are generally the ones who have rude disrespectful parents. Life's really not that complicated in the end.
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Ha Ha Ha
I loved this.
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Other People's Kids Suck
Hey parents of today - the rest of us hate your obnoxious, over-pampered spawn and we will cut their overweening gradiosity... err... "self esteem" down to size at the first opportunity.
Better toughen those rotten little fuckers up at home.
PS: I'm not the only one in the faculty lounge who thinks this way.
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WORD
...and thanks for teaching me to call people "whoring sea donkeys."
I always give you credit when complimented for that one.
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Name Calling and Spanking Isn't the Worst Punishment
My old man would patiently give me 1/2 hr lectures on critical topics such as the importance of turning lights off when you leave the room and how . No physical violence or name calling. Much, much worse! Seemingly unending, soul-crushing lectures on minor acts of forgetfulness and/or being a kid. But it did give me a bad attitude and an aptitude for long-winded argumentation, which I have put to good use in my career as a litigator.
(And, by the way, SymbolX6, I find it funny that you blame feminism and psychology for removing hurtful language from our daily existence after whining elsewhere about how I insulted you for stating that you have an ax to grind about feminism.)
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Great Article!
I thought this article was great. While Alec Baldwin clearly lost his cool, it certainly seems to me that Kim Basinger releasing the tape to the press is equally, if not more insulting to their child.
All that said, my dad is infamous for making donkey noises (think a very loud "hee haw") whenever one of his children (or one of our friends, or one of his friends, for that matter) was being an idiot. We consider it rather charming. Of course, we all make the same noise to him on occasion! And yes, I kind of did grow up in a barn.
I generally think that it's the spirit of the thing that matters. If you tell your kids when they are being idiots, but you love them and care for them, they'll be fine. Sadly, the opposite also holds true, I think.
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Words hurt, Heather.
Here's how I see it: We WANT our kids to grow up sensitive. If a little girl is called a pig by her dad and it doesn't hurt, well that makes a sad situation even sadder. The answer isn't calling her a pig until she realizes Daddy's just a hothead.
It's up to us as adults to realize that kids can be dicks and then address those dickish behaviors without shaming them.
But don't worry. Even without being called names by adults (those are the names that stick with you way after childhood somehow), there are still millions of other ways that kids can grow up feeling shitty about themselves.
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Really?
Alec Baldwin's message left you hankering for the good old days, did it? Hmm. Wow. And you're a new parent, yes?
A couple of questions are in my mind after reading your article:
1. Do you just hate the idea of children, your own or anyone else's, having it better than you did? Does it give you a squirmy, resentful, petulant feeling? That's what I imagine.
2. Some fine day, someone is going to be cruel to your child. How are you going to react? Are you going to be pissed off? Or are you going to think, "Yeah, that's right, little f****r. That'll toughen you up." You talk about your own parents in the article, but you don't talk about your own child, about the protective feelings I know you've got to have. I'm really curious.
Look, I know all parents reach the end of their rope. I'm a parent. (My son is only one, so while he wears me out sometimes, he hasn't tested me like this yet. He's not old enough to consciously antagonize me. It'll happen.) But I can tell you right now it's nowhere in my bones to call him names. My parents never called me names, and they still managed to communicate my screwups to me effectively. Walk softly, carry a big stick. If you can model toughness/assertiveness to your kids without resorting to cheap shots, they're going to absorb skills that'll take them far in the world.
Yeah, I really do not relate. I'm no pansy, but this just seems sort of cheap and lame to me.