Poor Parenting
 

Poor Parenting is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. But as an innocent bystander, I see things that make me wonder.

For instance, today at the airport, there were a number of people gawking at this old plane.
Separating the gawkers from the runway is a fence with very pointy steel spikes.
Every so often there's a brick pillar, about 4 ft high, topped with a concrete slab about 2 ft square. Now the pointy fence runs through the middle so there's about a 1ft by 2ft platform on our side, and the concrete slab is beveled a couple inches on all edges.

OK, now on this perilous perch, this guy plants his two kids for a better view, like so.http://cellar.org/2008/spikes.jpg

Now the two kids a bobbing and weaving, with their heads over the pointy spike fence, at least half the time.
While I have visions of one or both of these kids, hanging from the pointy spikes by their chins, Dad (green hat), Mom (pink) and Grandmom? (stripes), seem not to be paying much mind.

Now I'm no nervous nellie, kids riding in the back of pickup trucks, and bicycling without helmets, don't bother me at all. But these are really pointy spikes.

darwinism

seems semi-okay to me. as long as he's not trying to flip the kiddos over the fence.

[We need a thread merge...]

If their heads stay where they are in the picture, then I would agree. But Bruce said they were leaning over the fence, craning their neck in order to see farther. Imagine if their foot slips off the narrow ledge at that point (no pun intended.)

Then they would learn a very important lesson in life.


Daddy is an idiot.

clone thread: "Poop Parenting"

I agree with you Bruce. Perhaps because of my horror of spikes (I will cross the street to avoid them as I have a real fear of being impaled, however unlikely). If their fotting was more secure I'd laugh it off. But the possibility they could slip, especially while leaning over the spikes... not worth the risk. Dad looks plenty beefy enough to take a kid on his shoulders!

That's irritating to see for sure. I'm not very forgiving about lapsed parenting.
I hate hate hate it when parents let their kid tear up their food and throw it all over the floor at our restaurant. They don't even attempt to clean it up. I don't give a fuck if I'm being paid to clean it up, its disgusting and shows you are disgusting people.
Another thing, don't let your children go to the bathroom by themselves even at 12-13. Its a safety issue, kids get molested in public restrooms.
If your kid is screaming/talking while your trying to put in a food order or talk to anyone, stop and tell them to be quiet. There's enough noise as it is, that just makes it all the more difficult for the cashier to understand you. How would you feel if I let my dog bark all the time? Same kind of annoyance.
If they are running all over the building, don't ignore that. I can't even count the number of little kids I've barely avoided running into and spilling hot food all over. I would feel horrible if that happened!
Don't even get me started on the basic nutritional atrocities I see.
I love kids, want my own (well hoping to adopt) someday. I cannot stand stupid parenting, and I don't think I'm being too harsh, my parents raised 3 kids and none of these shenanigans were allowed.

I'm with you on everything except this one. A 12-year-old will have plenty of other times when they are not with their parents, not just in the bathroom. They are more than old enough to understand what is common public behavior and what is an attack on them, and ought to have the confidence to use basic defense techniques of screaming, hitting, and/or running. If they don't, then that's poor parenting.

Several years ago, there was a kidnapping of a teen girl that happened to be caught on surveillance video. The male stranger walked up to her, took her arm, and simply led her into his car with little to no effort. She was completely cowed and did not try to fight back in any way. He had no weapon, and you could clearly see the fear on her face; she knew exactly what was happening. Yet she went along. Spend too much time protecting your little snowflakes--and attending them in the bathroom when they're almost a teenager--and they won't know what to do when something dreadful does happen to them.

I'm with Clod. Children should be trained to assert themselves, to defend themselves, and subjected to tests of their resolve, where only the strong survive. I saw on TV last night about a Chinese lad who was dumped in the forest to fend for himself at the age of nine, and he went on to become emperor. I say, even the parents should, on random occasions, suddenly attack their children. Keep them on their toes. Of course, strangers should do this more frequently. Does 'em good.




P.S. ;) ;) ;) .... okay?

Poor parenting is when you haven't ever disciplined your child and then when they get into trouble, you defend them and say it was someone else's fault!

I think you should have to state whether you are a parent or not and how old your children are before your are allowed to reply on this topic....

in the pic the caregivers are not looking, but neither are they miles away.

I don't want my kids dicking around near those particular spikes. The bathroom thing varies by location I think, its not a specific age.

(breeder - 8 and almost 10)

I mght allow my chidren up there, but it would depend on their excitement/behaviour levels, and those of the other kids up there, and I woild be right by them -probably holding the waistband of the 6yo. (others are 9 and 10 and pretty good at behaving)

The bathroom thing? I would not take my kids anywhere it wasn't safe for a 9yo to go by themselves.

poor parenting comes in all shapes and forms. Today I was shopping with Mrs L and the boys. They were off doing their own thing and I was sitting in a quiet part of the store, near a little used exit. I was just relaxing, minding my own business when a guy walks in yacking on his phone with his @ 5 year old boy following. the guy walked from rack to rack without ever looking at his kid who proceded to bug the shit out of me for no less than 25 minutes. At one point I literally told him to go find his dad and ask him why he shouldn't try to sit in a stranger's lap. No sight of dad, even though i could hear his voice roaming around.

Finally Mrs L signaled that my torture was over and we were leaving but I couldn't dial down my inner asshole. I passed the dad on my way out and had a simple compliment for him, "I really admire your ability to trust I'm not a child rapist since I just spent 25 minutes alone with your son". The fucker didn't even close his phone. He just gave me a dirty look and kept on going.