Don't be shy, Boaz, admit it.

>>While I do believe in corporal punishment...that wasn't what I was particularly advocating<<

You just love it, don't you - you even started a thread on the topic.

>>When my 12 year old daughter slipped out her bedroom window at 2.00am with her 11 year old girlfriend, and sat in the middle of the bush surrounded oval over our back fence, I took her in the presense of her friend, and smacked her bum many MANy times... and deliberately sought to TRAUMATIZE her to a limited degree<<

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=50#750

But it seem that once again, you are very selective in who should be allowed to do the beating, aren't you?

>>what I find amazing is how those sympathetic to the beating of women as 'discipline' react when this is pointed out. They speak 'tenderly' about a position which can only have originated in the pit of hell<<

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=4211#33988

Consistency never was your strong point, was it?

>>Oh..Cakers :) ALLLways expect or anticipate a 'spiritual angle' from me :)<<

Spiritual? Hardly.

Hypocritical? Certainly.

Saddly, I (a teenager) must agree with this post. There is too many viloent images on our television screens and more horrible music polluting our minds. As a child of very strict parents who rule with iron fists I would never be allowed to get away with anying. Thust I have seen society change in my years of life. teenagers have 'out grown' the imprint of a 'good' child and are rebeling against any arthourity. If the government was to inforce laws against teenagers doing what they want, teenagers will just rebel more and more. The question is not "where will it stop". It is, Is there a solution?

Zam...
Wouldn't mind hearing the views of other young people actually.
I agree with one post whereby to some degree the current problems
have always been there.

Look at the job scene mention. 12 hour days in the 19th century.
Nowadays pushing a broom is already beneath a school leaver. They
have to get straight to the job with a mega paying job. Instead the parents need to give their little Johnnie guidance and BIG reality check. Life experience is zip. The better ones/youth are the ones that have worked hard and worked their way up the ladder. No short cuts, handouts or silver platters.

Surely then, personal satisfaction and of course, job satisfaction lies. Can a young person be angry and resentful if he is doing positive actions to further him or herself. There is too much boredom out there. There needs to be guidance and direction from unfortunately 'too busy' parents. There are after all 350 thousand impoverished families in QLD alone (on the news this week). But there needs to be parenting and persaution to work hard now to see the results later. Didn't do my generation any harm. I was a hospital based trained nurse ;)

Perhaps the 'instand society' mentality is part of the teenage 'breakdown' seen in places like our Mooloolaba strip after midnight. Bashings, drunken very young people, bored 'looking for a fight' people. Surely employed content young people aren't doing this fighting if the parenting has been strict and CONSISTENT.

There has to be "I mean it. And stick to what you say". Parents today don't seem to mean there there 'punishments' and buckle all too easily.

No wonder little Johnnie is so confused; the boundaries are no longer clear. He'll see what he can get away with 'out there' and they now all too well the law can't touch them. Not corporal punishment but maybe something like wearing a sign in pubic to 'humiliate' into becoming more lawful.

Everyone needs to toughen up and be consistent for the sake of the kids.

Here is an interesting quote that I cut out of the newspaper a little while back because I thought it was pretty accurate.

It is by the actor Dustin Hoffman-- "I have tried to be patient, to listen and to let my children shape themselves. Ultimately, I've learnt that if I let our home run as a democracy, I'm eaten alive".

I take this to mean that children need someone to set firm boundaries and to consistently apply appropriate penalties for bad and disrepectful behaviour. Unfortunately a lot of parents are ruled by their children and this has dire consequences for society when these kids take their undisciplined and selfish behavour out on to the streets of society. How do you fix bad parenting?.

Maybe shaming could work. Make these kids wear green and white striped uniforms and work in the supermarkets and public places in their local communities where they are known by their friends and neighbours. Or is this too harsh for the civil libertarians and lawyers.

It is the faceless society that allows these people to operate without fear of peer judgement. Make their crimes and faces visible to people they know and have to live amongst. Take their anominity away.

The problem is that you need balance. I have seen kids in hgih school who had very very strict parents and they end up completely rebelling against what the parents want them to do. One friend, when he was 16, dropped out of school and started working in a pool hall for a paltry amount of cash and got into drugs. He has no carrer prospects and it was directly related to the fact that his parents were too strict, as this was his greivance in life and this was the way he rebelled against it, by dissing their expectations of him.

On the other hand, I had another friend who's parents were working hard constantly trying to get their buisness off the ground and gave him everything he ever wanted to compensate. He is now the biggest weed smoker I know and can't form proper relationships with anyone.

Continued...

...continued

I think you need to find the boundaries of what's fair, but not just from a parent's point of view. Communicate! You need to see what your child will accept as fair and negotiate based on this in combination with your goals for your child. Then the boundaries that you have set together will have a better chance of being adhered to.

I have just moved out of home after recently graduating from uni at the age of 23. I was brought up in a family where my stepfather for various reasons resented my presence. I used to get hit by him for the smallest things, like not giving him the remote when he wanted it. Now what that led to in me was a pattern of drug abuse (amphetamines mainly) and feelings of hostility and resentment to everyone around me. When I realised that I was feeling this way because of the treatment given to me and the attitude my stepfather had towards me, I was able to let go of my feelings of hostility and resentment and stop using amphetamines.

My conclusion is that a violent corporal punishment style attitude, and therefore a resentful attitude, in parents is precisely what creates hostility and antisocial behaviour in young people. I don't think you can generalise beyond that for example in saying that "this generation is worse or that generation is worse because of reason X"