More stuff that makes me cranky...

I was raised by my grandparents. They were born in the 30's. So I'm a tad on the old fashioned side. I don't think that my current rant is a matter of generational gappitude though. I think it's just sheer frelling laziness.

What the hell am I talking about?

Parenting.

Or rather the lack thereof.

Examples of the things that annoy the piss out of me about parents today:

Blaming their kid's bad behaviour on music, games, tv, music.

This has to be the biggest cop out ever. Oh my kid beat up that poor person because they played a video game and it's the fault of the video game makers. Umm... Wrong, Kato. It's your damn fault for buying the violent video game. It's your fault for not teaching your kid right from wrong. It's your fault for not disciplining your kid and fostering in them the idea that they can do anything they want and blame it on something else. It's your fault for being a shitty parent.

Allowing their little girls to dress like prostitutes.

This bothers me on so many levels that I choke on the words. No way in hell should a six year old girl be wearing crop tops and leather pants. No way should a 12 year old girl be trying to look like Britney Spears or whatever other slut pop star is currently setting trends. What the fuck ever happened to letting your kid be a freaking kid?

I was hanging with my little five year old son getting mommy hugs and smooches and the little spaz tried to tongue kiss me. I was livid. I was all kinds of set to talk to the teachers at his Pre-K, the parents of the little girls he learned that shit from, not to mention the verbal lashing his father got for not putting a stop to that crap right out of the gate.

I don't care if the kid is 16 or four. It makes no difference. Cause even at 16 a child is still a goddamned child. And our duties as parents are to ensure that our children are protected and grow up able to think for themselves and protect themselves when we let them go out into the world. The only thing they learn by being allowed to emulate skanky chicks or adult behaviour long before they are able to understand the consequences of such, is to be trash.

The early and oversexualization of children is abhorrent. I just want to beat people who allow it.

Child Abuse

This is a lot broader a category than it appears on first blush. It isn't just people beating their kids or locking them in closets. It isn't just sexual molestation, which also makes me damn near homicidal. It's also neglect.

I don't just mean not feeding or taking care of a kid. It also means not taking an interest. Not teaching your kid. Yeah, that goes back to an earlier topic. Not actively guiding and teaching a child is neglect as surely as anything else.

I also classify as abuse limiting your child. Not limiting like giving them rules to follow to keep them safe, but like crippling them by enforcing on them the idea that they aren't capable of doing something. Not encouraging and supporting a child, not instilling in them a belief that they can do anything they set their mind to, or at the very least TRY. I was in Best Buy one day and about choked on my own tongue when some (insert an insult of your choosing here because I won't repeat what I called her) woman looked at her little girl and the movie she had and said: You don't want that, that's a boy movie. Her voice was dripping with disgust and you could just see the little girl wilt under the scorn. I've never wanted to punch another human being so much as I did at that instant.

Obviously, I get a little tense about children. My maternal instincts are definitely in overdrive and always have been. I see people who use their kids to hurt an ex and I just want to beat them. Kids are one of my hot buttons. The possibly psychological causes and ramifications of this are not lost on me and I can make fun of myself for it, so it's unlikely I'll go postal any time soon...