cont/...

The media is a big influence in society whether we like it or not. The question is how do we raise our kids to be self-confident and content with who they are in the face of pressure (real or otherwise) to be thin, beautiful etc. As adults we can laugh at it and ignore it but what about younger people who are developing?

I don't know the answer, because the media has always been ever-present. Even when model Twiggy became famous and thin was in, I don't think diseases like anorexia were as prevalent (or maybe they were not reported) nor did people seem to be less happy with their body image.

A lot of it has to do with other issues, nothing stands in isolation, there are nearly always contributing factors. We are more disconnected from our kids than ever before, now with the economic/social pressure for both parents to be at work, sometimes as soon as the baby hits six weeks old.

In my opinion, a lot of self-esteem comes from natural factors such as security within family (of any description), being loved and treated with respect, rather than pretend attempts at building self-esteem through social engineering policies.

Society must live with itself. There are two types of people those who do and those who simply follow the rest, and the doers are usually in the top five percent of intelligence ratings, and create most of the jobs. Some of these doers are obnoxious, and very difficult for those they live with, while others are easy to live with and as they used to say get along.

Government has made itself unaccountable in many ways, and in New South Wales before 1970, the Supreme Court was a place where if your feelings were hurt by the government you could call them to account. In that year they made Judges, to replace you in the courts, and the result is that New South Wales has beggars on the streets and thousands sleep rough every night. I wonder how they feel. The ordinary people are given cake in return for the enormous lowering of their personal power, caused by the takeover of the law by lawyers.

They gave women a vote, every three years, but took away your right to vote as a member of a jury. They gave us all a vote, but took away our right to decide the punishment that should be inflicted on sinners, and reduced us to a panel of twelve to decide serious cases of guilt or innocence. They then gave the sentencing to a Judge, and dictated to that Judge a range of sentences. At the same time they condemned him or her to eternal damnation, if he or she is a Christian, but the money is good.

I feel that we have been conned by our lawyers. I have recently had a case where a lawyer is trying to repossess a house from an elderly couple, in the Supreme Court in New South Wales. The couple own nearly half the house, and the mortgage is for about half: they pay regularly. The Supreme Court in New South Wales gives mortgagees possession in such cases, and the victim loses everything. I feel badly about that. How do the victims feel

Well said,Pelican, and in answer to your questions on how we do that, we have to sit down and explain it to the kids, from an early age, show them what is being done and what is real, that negates a lot of the media influences. Counter-train them.
As for confidence, as you said, a home, a sense of family, of belonging, and the adults that run their lives actual listening to them, all go a long way towards that.
Basically I'm saying that it takes an adult, either gender, to devote that one oh-so-short part of their life to raising the kids, a very old-fashioned but effective solution. Treating it as a part-time job, farming it out to others where convenient, are the direct cause of the youth problems and dis-connection that we see all around us.
I put my life where my mouth is, and was rewarded un-believably!
Three supremely competent, confident, young professionals, with a close family bond, truly heaven on earth.

Dear Max,

I'm equally lucky. I've got two equally great
children, who are our pride and joy. As well as
a happy marriage. Yes, life is good.

As I wrote on another thread.
What is important is the content of our children's
hearts and minds, or what is often described as
character. When we say, "It's what's inside that
counts," we speak a simple but profound truth.

We have growing agendas for raising our children.
But while we are feverish about providing our children -
every opportunity, from music lessons, tennis lessons, to
a college or university degree, it seems that our job as
parents is much simpler, and that is to raise a decent
human being.

I won't go into further detail here - but enough to say
I wanted to surround my children with a sturdy sensibility,
a world view, and I wanted it to be different from the
"Me," mentality of modern culture.

Ginx: "I'm curious as to why you started this thread....?"

Its possible this thread had something to do with it. http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=8737#140170 It certainly had me scratching my head.

Unlike Houellebecq, I didn't see it as a general societal thing - just an example of one individual wanting the world to change to suit her. I am not sure whinging about it is the right reaction. I think the best solution is just to ignore the demands and move on. You would hope they get the message soon enough.

Haha Ginxy,

Quid Pro Quo man. 'Fractelle took a hammering'? Only from me, everyone else ignored the duplicitousness, so I got with the program myself. Actually I also wanted a topic to bring in the religious nutters, anti-socialists and gender warriors to the one thread. I couldn't work any greeny angle in though.

I'm a bit disappointed all I've generated is boring nodding 'yes it was better in the good 'ol days, I'm a good parent etc. Maybe it's boring because I agree with most of the posting. Even Peter the Believer, well, not really, I couldn't decipher most of that.

Maybe I'll go more Fractelle-like and claim that my motivation for the topic was all those women in the Hey Good Lookin thread who denied assessing men in a sexual way.

Hmm how can I liven things up. Perhaps society has been too feminised. The little girls who were always cuddled by their mommys and daddys whenever they shed a tear have obtained more influence and now their attitude of expecting people to jump to fix everything whenever they're upset is encroaching on the social landscape more than it did when the 'boys don't cry' men were running things?