Parenting forum vote
 

Voting will cease in 48 hours.

I voted yes. But I recommend that instead of a parenting forum, how about a 'relationships' forum; a place to discuss any interpersonal relationships. Parents, kids, spouses, bosses, employees, irritating neighbors etc.

No for parenting.

Yes for relationships.

"Relationships" has an unpleasant angsty hate-life whine implication. I like the idea of merging it a bit, though; how about more of a 'People' instead of just 'parenting' or 'relationships'?

Ok. Maybe we can go Pooh-like and call it "Friends & Relations".

I'm more with Skunks..."People".

I think it might be interesting ... the childfree giving advice to parents. Great humor potential, and it gives me a place to gripe about the latest failure in childrearing that I dealt with at the nuthouse.

Tonight's entry was a mother who called because her 14 year old son is being "disrespectful, rebellious, and he won't do his homework. AND HE HAD A LIGHTER AND HE TRIED TO BURN SNOW!!!*"

"Ma'am, did he try to kill you?"

"No."

"Is he trying to kill himself?"

"No."

"Did you take the lighter away?"

"Yes. He didn't actually burn any snow, but we might get thrown out of our section 8 housing."

"If the snow burns, you have bigger problems than that, ma'am. So, what, if anything did you do about your son's behavior?"

"I took the cables off his computer so he can't use it."

"And he didn't threaten to kill you after that?"

"No."

"None of what your telling me really qualifies for intervention by the suicide hotline and crisis center. Do you think you can keep things settled down until his outpatient center opens in the morning? They'll be there at 9AM. If you really think he needs to be in the hospital, you are welcome to drive down here in the snowstorm. Do you think you need to do that?"

"No. But he won't do his homework."

As an interesting aside ... one of my friends (forksbob) DID in fact burn snow. He cheated a bit. He worked on our college newspaper. They had a coffee pot full of burning snow in the office. They had a tendency to burn things in the office, and the editor saw the flaming coffee pot and started screaming at them ... "YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BURN THINGS IN THE OFF ... IS THAT SNOW? HOW ARE YOU BURNING SNOW????!!!!!"

She went on a little leave after that, I think ...

(the trick incidentally, is not in the snow, but rather in the liberal amount of rubber cement added TO the snow that makes that work)





* Note to non-parents, or those who don't remember their years from ages 13-18 very clearly. The described behavior is indicative of a chronic condition known as "being a teenager."

The things discussed under "Relationships" have nothing to do with the things that would be discussed under "Parenting". Sure, it may be interesting, but I think you're talking about a completely different subject.

You needn't have children to be able to bitch about them in the Parenting forum. Look at Sycamore's new thread in his forum. Even though he put it under the banner of "Childfree", all that happened is that people ended up talking about parenting. Such discussion would be perfectly fine in a Parenting forum. You don't have to be a parent to talk about the great deal of horrible mistakes people are out there making. Such discussion is wholly correct and relevant, in my opinion.

wolf, i was completely derailed reading this...... stilll wiping tears from my eyes......

That's how it's supposed to work. :) Glad my aim is still good.