No Fear
When I was younger, I used to listen to older people talk about “the old days” and I’d roll my eyes and I swore to myself that I’d never do that, but things these days are just out of control, and now I’m missing MY old days. My old days weren’t Huck Finn perfect and crime-free, but it was better than it is now.
A fair proportion of children these days have NO respect for anyone or anything and while I would like to blame the kids for this, it’s our fault they’re like this.
I remember reading (or hearing) somewhere that a person who respects their elders has honour not only for others, but for themselves as well and what with the spate of crimes committed against the elderly and infirm (also check out here, here, and here. There’s tons of them), one can only guess that there is no such thing as honour anymore and I think that disappeared around about the time that self responsibility became a thing of the past.
Kids have no fear now, and I don’t mean fear in a bad way where a kid gets the shit kicked out them every time their drunk dad comes home, I’m talking about the “what if” fear – the fear that if you do something wrong, you’re going to get in trouble for it. That “wait till your dad gets home” fear when nothing really bad happened, but you shit yourself for hours in your room waiting till dad got home.
When I was a kid, I had fear. My parents weren’t abusive at all – in today’s society I guess they would be because when I was 13 years old, I came home with a really bad report card. Dad was furious and he picked me up and tossed me and fuck I was scared, but did I pick up my grades and work to my full potential? You bet your ass I did. I went from Basic in everything to Advanced Credit in a few subjects – something I should have been getting in the first place, had I applied myself. It’s the only time I remember my dad losing his temper with me and it’s a lesson learned that still applies today. So was it a bad thing? In hindsight, hell no.
When I was a kid, I didn’t ditch school. My dad was a cop in the area and my mum was in retail in a large store where nearly everyone knew her. I had that fear that had I stepped one foot out of school grounds during school time, SOMEONE would have seen me and said something to either parent about how they saw Debbie walking on the street during school hours. Where could I go anyway? The store where mum worked? Doubtful. Because of that fear, I stayed in school every day unless I was sick and mum knew I was home anyway because she stayed there with me.
When I was a kid, there was a handful of “bad kids”. They were bad because they smoked, wore tight jeans and desert boots and mouthed off amongst themselves about how tough they were. It was all bullshit, but back then a kid’s word was gospel when you’re a kid yourself. I smoked, so I got on fine with them, but I wasn’t a “bad kid”, I was one of those kids who applied themselves (after an appalling high school start) who was only just slightly cool enough to hang with without anyone losing their “bad kid” rep and anyway, I was funny so everyone liked me.
Today, kids beat the shit out of each other and film it so that they can put it on youtube to show what heroes they are. Girls and boys get the absolute shit kicked out of them, all because it’s awesome to watch it again and again and again on myspace pages. Kids organise runs through shopping centres where they knock shit off shelves and damage other people’s property and if security guards get involved, you can be guaranteed that a parent will be at the shopping centre within the hour with their little asshole offspring in tow so they can berate the security guard for doing his job and push things as far as getting the security guard sacked – for doing his job.
Think I’m kidding? I’ve seen it happen, right here in laid back Western Australia and things are so out of control in some suburbs that the elderly are too scared to leave their houses to go shopping. They can’t even go during school hours because this particular type of kid isn’t even in school.
Kids don’t stay at school anymore. I can drop my 14 year old daughter off at school and she can then walk off the school grounds and catch the train to wherever and spend the day goofing off with her other truant friends. We’ve had it happen. One day, we dropped her off at school and by the time we got to the post office we wanted to get to, she’d hopped a train and made her way to the shopping centre that the post office was located at. We saw her, got her in the car and took her back to the school, but shouldn’t there be a duty of care at the school? As the law stands now, if a kid truants, it’s the parents fault, but what about those parents who drop their kid off at the front door of the school and watch their kid enter the school? How is it the parent’s fault when they’ve done everything possible to ensure their child gets to the school, other than sit in all the classes too?
Most kids these days are little assholes, and the scary thing is these kids are going to be adults one day and they won’t be able to cope. They will spawn little assholes of their own and those kids will run wild because kids now have no idea about self responsibility, honour, or doing the right thing. They’re going to be a part of the decision making process when it comes to electing the government that governs the country they live in.
Fuck the law, when it comes to the raising of a child. Smack it, educate it and love it. If you’re charged, go to the media and tell them your story – perhaps other parents will start doing it, too.
Kids have the right to live in an abuse-free environment, but so do the rest of us. We shouldn’t be taking abuse from these little assholes because everyone is too scared to kick their kid up the arse when they do something wrong.
I am proud that I smack my kids when they fuck up bad. The 14 year old got a kick up the bum for being mouthy and abusive and she told me she hated living with me. I helped her pack a bag and I told her to piss off if she didn’t like it, so she left. Two weeks later, she was back, and she is behaving so I guess I’m not that hard to live with after all.
Kids need boundaries and they need rules. We, as adults, have rules to adhere to. We must work in order to get a nice house, pay our bills and feed our families. It’s all well and good that children think they’re clever for telling a teacher to fuck off while they walk out of a classroom, but how do you think that kid is going to go when they’ve got a job? Do you think their boss is going to stand for that? Do you think they’ll be fired?
Yeah… exactly.
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