Letters to the Editor
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No wonder there are so many assholes in the world
The number of people on this board advocating name-calling as a parenting strategy really explains a lot about the number of assholes there are in the world. It's astounding that so many of you think that if you're not calling your kid names you're turning them into whiny spineless wimps. I hope most of you aren't really parents and will figure this out if you become parents, but there are many ways of respectfully teaching your children. You can raise a child to respect you and others, you can be tough on a child, you can have high standards, all without name-calling or shaming a child into submission. Maybe then they won't become angry adults who have to vent on strangers online.
I'm not always a great parent and I've done things in anger I shouldn't, but to hold up those moments as matters of personal pride and an example to others is unfathomable.
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something nice to say to rampart
(reading *your* last clause, "except maybe to make it more likely that you will call someone a name too") that's self-awareness, good for you. wish you well. i'd like it a lot better if people responded to the *intelligent* or *insightful* things i say, but they don't. they only respond to the negative, or seemingly negative. tough. too bad for me.
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Kinda funny
First this: "No wonder there are so many assholes in the world."
Then this after much blah, blah:...."Maybe then they won't become angry adults who have to vent on strangers online."
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Holy SHIT, Batman!
The bat-toilet is bat-backing up!!
But seriously folks, is there anyone here who didn't have a dysfunctional childhood?? I know I did. My mother wore the pants in my family, and she had something that was simply known as "The Belt."
The Belt was one of those thin, male belts with the buckle removed, tied into a knot at one end with a loop. Kind of a cat-of-two-tails. When I was in trouble, my mother would chase me through are spacious abode, lashing my pale, smooth, gleaming ass cheeks until they glowed a rosy red.
Thence came the verbal abuse. Pointing, she would cry out in a thunderous, full-throated voice:
"You call THAT a pee-pee?! That's not a manhood! Hell, that's not even a BOYHOOD, but that doesn't mean I can't yank it out far enough to CUT IT OFF!"
Sniveling little SHIT!
Fucking little motherfucking FUCKER!!
Bubble-headed BOOBY!!!
Those were just a few of the choicer denunciations I could expect for such transgressions as failing to pick all of the lint from between her hairy toes.
But hey...I turned out just fine. >;-)
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Alec Baldwin... we don't know him.
I have kids and I would NEVER call them names, not under any conditions. I wasn't called names and am better off for it. But this isn't about the general phenomenon, but about a celebrity whose long custody battle we know little about.
I cringed when I heard his words and yet immediately, I gave A. Baldwin the benefit of the doubt. I suspect that Kim Bassinger has not played straight in her court battle and that therefore the dad in this case is enduring a longing for his kid and a fury at his wife, who may be brainwashing his daughter against him.
I don't know the man but he is said to be full of good deeds for others, helping those in distress. This may be because he is in distress. And my main point, a phone message is not expected to be heard all over the internet. How did it get out? Don't you suspect, as the press does, that the mom is the one out of control. Imagine not being able to see your kid for YEARS. That would send most dads or moms over the line.
So I withhold judgement as celebrity news is one thing Mr. Baldwin surely doesn't need. My suspicion is that this phone message is part of a long string of insults and hurts the father has suffered, not at the hands of his kid, but from his ex. Who else could release the phone message? Surely not an 11 year old. Kids need two parents if there are two and both want to be involved.
I, too, was divorced. But I never ever spoke negatively of their father. It only erodes the kids' self-confidence. I'm glad that my grown children now say: "We love you both equally." They say this knowing that I was the primary parent and their dad was often out of reach. But I am so happy that they love him. The more love, the better, and I do not think the villian is likely to be a devastated and frustrated dad. THAT is the tip of the iceburg, not the whole story, not by a long shot.
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Gosh Tom Rakewell! you GAVE it to him!
(you said, in the Subject!, This is probably a lost cause, but please don't call me "Nimrod") what did you expect!? (and P.S., art *can* use restraint - it's just not his natural mode of discourse)
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Rob Anderson, that was FUNNY!
but even with the "emoticon", >;-) there will be many who will take you seriously. you *can't* use irony on bulletin boards, just doesn't travel.
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Slapping Asses and Spanking Monkeys
I hate to break it to all you hyper-sensitive PC types, but any given six-year-old is perfectly capable of being a little bastard or bitch. All it takes is shitty parenting...you know, the kind YOU provide.
I've had it up to here with your ill-mannered, mis-behaving, mis-begotten little twats. Half of them should be boiled in oil, and the other half thrown to wild, starving dogs.
"Hey I know. Lets see how long and how loud I can SHRIEK at the top of my widdle wungs at 7am on a Saturday!"
KILL them ALL.
The problem with children today is that they have little or no meaningful discipline in their widdle wives, so naturally they think the earth belongs to them and them alone. I would have believed the same thing at their age if not for my mother's thundering voice and velvet fist. If I had shrieked out loud in the middle of our neighborhood street at 7am on a Saturday I wouldn't be typing this now because I'd be DEAD.
Food for your starving brains.