Monday, April 11, 2005

Woman Angry That Friend Refuses To Discipline Children

A woman told a friend last night that she was no longer able to spend time with a mutual friend of theirs because the friend did not sufficiently discipline her child. According to the woman, the child in question was very rude to both adults and other children and tended to throw a fit whenever he did not get his way. She said that when they had last gone to dinner the child had literally screamed when he was told that he would not get desert. His parents then decided to give him desert. The woman said that though she and the mother in question had been close friends she found that she could no longer be around the mother because the lack of discipline drove her mad.
The friend said that she certainly understood the woman's point, but mentioned that the woman had children of her own and was hardly a drill sergeant when it came to discipline. She remembered how the woman's kids often had to be put to bed five or six times and how they often were allowed to simply stay up and watch a movie by simply being persistent about refusing bedtime.
Well, the woman said, that's not really the kind of discipline I was talking about. My kids aren't really bad.

3 comments:

Wyrfu said...

It seems that beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

Ned said...

Gone are the days when you could administer a deserved smack to the bottom of a misbehaving child. The sheer embarrassment of having the temper tantrum throwing child in a public place and the constant awareness that the world is full of concerned citizens armed with cell phones to report any such brutalization of children by parents such as discipline, makes parents rightfully afraid of their offspring and any attempt to force them to conform to the rules of society. Parents are impotent toy buyers. I can't remember who said this but it holds true, "Parents who refuse to civilize their children leave civilization the task of defending itself". And a civilization that refuses to let parents discipline, deserves what it gets.

Rose said...

Should a child be hit because their parents have taught them all they have to do is scream to get their way? Maybe the parents deserve to be slapped but certainly never a child. Are we assuming here there is abosultely no other way to discipline a child. I don't consider teaching children that violence is the answer to anything a bennefit to civilzation. Might we perhaps compare the violent crime rate of the US and Switzerland? Guess in which country corpral punishment is illegal. Yet everyone own guns? If a parent is ignorant of how to dicipline any way but through physical violence then perhaps that child is doomed to be a liabilty to civilization anyway. One more person that thinks "Might makes Right". I know this is an old post but rrrrr people delibrately seeing only in black and white to justify their own opinion irritates me. I am writing this comment if only to vent.