Not sure how to respond, other than thank you. It's been a rough year.


Back on topic, I was watching a show on the national geographic channel earlier about childhood development. One of the topics discussed was whether child prodigies are a result of genetics or parental intervention. For child prodigies, they have to have a will to WANT to learn. Parent's can't force a kid to do this. As I was watching this program, I couldn't help but to think about the parents who force their kids to play baseball, football, sing, act, model...or convince them that being a doctor, lawyer, politican is the only way to be well respected and that money is everything in life. Forcing someone, of any age, to do something they have little to no interest in will do nothing other than make them unhappy in life - if they don't choose to turn against you and do what they please.

It is human nature to want to be happy, and financially secure. Sure the American Dream is what...the nice little house, 2.4 kids, white picket fence and a cute puppy dog. But with the media being the way it is, most dream of things much greater. There are TV shows like cribs, and such. Who watches this kinda stuff? The generation we speak of in this thread. They see this, and what happens? They assume that because others get to live like this, that this is the one and only lifestyle...they then start dreaming of fancy cars, huge houses, etc. They see these rich spoiled kids in NY, LA and all that get what they want...and they want to be the same. It's all a huge game, and the media has a lot to do with it.

I'm hesitant to bring up another topic that's big in society right now, but that's the topic of sex. It's alllll over tv, it's alllll over songs...it's accepted, even though it's not. Kids see their favorite celebrities talking about it. Peer pressure is everything. When their friends are doing it, be it drugs, sex, alcohol...they want to do it to be 'accepted' and 'cool.'

Oh and don't get me started on smoking and drinking. People working in these stores are NOT doing their job and carding everyone. I have friends who talk about having never been carded, yet I get carded every time...as does my husband and he hasn't been 21 in over 20 years. lol. So why are we allowing 15 year olds to get a hold of alcohol? There is absolutely zero excuse for it. And if you try pulling that, well they get it at home thing...then bring me their parents so I can smack the s*it out of them for not keeping it out of reach. There is no good reason for this. Why aren't schools enforcing this in school? I remember back in H.S. kids would smoke/do drugs in the bathroom in between and during classes. Where are the staff during this? It really only takes one walk around the school to realize what the heck is going on...and you can't tell me the smell of drugs is normal.

So to sum up my rant, yes the kids are ultimately responsible for their behavior...but don't you think the adult population has a little bit to do with this as well?

PCJ