Keith,
So you are in the pub moist of the time. It used to be only fathers but now it is the mothers as well. The kids have to text their parents to get them to come home.
Some pubs are building 'family' restaurants so all the family can get drunk together instead of being at home.
At home you don't have to drink but when at a pub, it is expected that the kids will drink up, to keep up with their parents.
The mums get tipsy first and it is great to drive all over the road tipsy on the way home.
Just who do you think kids learn to take drugs from, their parents.

No Glen

I have two business and help my daughter in hers. I am working to pay my son's Uni fees. (The Voluntary Unionism is a godsend and will save me $500 a year).

My businesses sometimes drive me to drink. But I can only really drink Whiskey. I have the odd 'Black Bush'. It's expensive so I can't have too much of that... sadly.

Neither of my kids drink or take drugs. Both work bloody hard.

Both can cook and our kitchen table is and has been home to many vibrant exchanges of views. My daughter has only once been inside a hotel. And that resulted in great hilarity. My son is very private and I don't know much of his experiences.

My kids could have found religion, lived off others and desired few of life's luxuries. They had the choice of living with me or their mother, who's chosen path was and is exactly that.

They chose the more difficult option and both have great self discipline and high self esteem.

I think I'm lucky because I had great pride in my kids and they responded to that. Now they seem to take their decisions in life quite seriously and little just seems 'to happen' for them.

I doubt any grandkids, if I am lucky enough to have some, will drink in pubs. But I am sure they will inherit grand senses of humour, fun and positivity. Just as I inherited those things from my parents and grandparents.

What will yours inherit? A proclivity to spell badly?

Keith

ps what made you think I was a woman?

I have just finished 4 years of study with no financial help from my single mother at all. I worked part time, have defered all of my HECS and battled with centrelink. It really isnt that hard. Perhaps some rich people get into uni at the expense of poorer ones, but that is full fee paying places that subsidise my HECS. The difference between TAFE and UNI is natural ability and prefered career path. Your parents can be millionares but if you cant add, then nothing will save you.
I also think you would find a definate cultural difference between people who listen to Zepplin because they like the music and those that download it to show off to their friends. In the end it matters very little, if a person chose their music due as a reaction to their parents, rather than due to the music itself, they have some serious identity problems as it is.

The differences & similarities between parent & sibling during the ‘teenage’ years is very much a reflection of the prevailing social conditions at that point in time.
The materialism displayed by today’s youth is not at all a surprise. The major influence on growing-minds is the media, hopefully balanced by correct parental advice & an education system that moulds in the correct human values. The problem is that quite often ‘correct’ social values are left out of our children’s makeup. Proper social education is certainly not guaranteed through our current school curriculum. This aspect has risen to prominence with the presentation of ‘Intelligent design’ for possible inclusion. There is a ‘vacuum’ within our education system needing to be filled by….?
It is a failure of the western peace movement that we parents ‘from the 60’s & 70’s’ today have largely ignored the true message of that era – that a headlong rush into capitalist materialism needs to be offset with human values, such as those offered by eastern culture & religion. It was a major fault of the 60’s peace movement that organised ‘structure’ was seen as a capitalist tool. It was a fault that drugs were accepted so freely. It was a fault that no collective plan was laid to allow for the evolution of ideas & their injection into mainstream capitalist society.
Some organisations from the 60’s have survived, Western & otherwise. It’s up to the parent to direct their child’s attention to organisations such as Green peace. To educate, impartially, about the various religions. To impress tolerance, non-discrimination & non-violence as the correct pathway.

For a start, try this survivor-

http://www.humanisten.ch/hi/front/index.php?lang=en

http://www.humanistparty.org.uk/links.htm

http://www.humanistmovement.org/

http://www.peacebound.com/

Shonga, I'm sure you are very proud of your kid who can read at a grade 4 level, but can you please take the time to write at better than a grade 4 level.

Instead of berating Col for his effort with his daughters, how about taking a bit more effort with your typing so at least your vitriol makes sense.

Col - much sense in what you say. Kids don't need their parents to be a best friend, they will find plenty of them in life. What they need is someone they respect, they can learn from and can guide them in the right direction and offer advice in difficult times. And discipline, although too many parents these days are afraid to use it.
Rules and boundaries are the domains of authority figures - not hippy, friendly, too cool-for school parents.

t.u.s.

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good-bye.

Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick, is the one you'll know by.

And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.

Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick, is the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why,
If they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh
.....and know they love you.