Code Adam

I know most of you know that is the code for a lost child in some retail stores. I was shopping in Wal-Mart today and this nasty little brat was running around, knocking things over, running in to people, etc, completely unsupervised. A few minutes later I saw his mother screaming at an employee "My child is lost, where is he?" like it is her fault. She screamed at everybody walking by like they were supposed to be watching her brat. They closed the doors, didn't let anyone in or out, and still didn't find the little monster. After about 20 minutes, someone looked into the lobby, and there he sat with his father, who hadn't bothered himself to answer any of the pages or tell anyone when he heard the kid's description over the system. He had finally gotten his brat to sit down and didn't want to get up and have him running around again was his excuse. I would have LOVED to kick all of them right in the back pockets! Some people just shouldn't breed!

NOW you know what we retail clerks have to put up with.

My brother was shopping, with his trashy girlfriend, the other day. While SHE was ripping open packages of T-shirts, one of her "little darlings" was in the toy department, ripping open Pokemon and Digimon cards. Security snagged him and took him off to the office and paged her.

When Trashy got there, she threatened to sue KMart, for harassing her bad seed. Another example of someone who should have been sterilized at birth!

This is exactly why I don't believe it is child abuse to spank a child!! (There is a big difference between spanking and beating by the way)
My parents would have taken me into the parking lot and gave me a good spanking had I been acting this way...and they were far from child abusers...of course I knew better than to act that way, because I knew what would happen if I did!
I'm not planning on spanking Amber (when she is much older, of course) unless I absolutely have to, and then it won't be hard, but I think a good swat on the butt seems to make realize they can't get by with this behavior. I'm sure many will disagree, but that's just the way I feel. I think if more parent's disciplined their children (not necessarily by spanking, their are other methods that work well also, and I intend to use those as well, like rewarding good behavior, and taking privileges away etc) their would be alot less bad behavior like this. I think too many parents simply do nothing when the child acts like this.

You've got the right attitude Debby - pity so many parents out there don't!

My husband and I have decided not to have children mainly due to the fact that we witness so many unruly kids running wild throughout the community. We often see kids running amuck in supermarkets etc and their parents just don't seem to care and don't seem to believe in discipline.

So, I can empathise and agree with you Krazy Kat2 - some people shouldn't breed! (except Debby and others like her)

Lisa

Mom had four of us and WE didn't run wild, in stores. Mom would have hauled us off to the ladies' room, for a session. If one of us DID misbehave, we only did it once.

A couple was in the store, the other night and, as they walked around they kept handing stuf to their little girl to play with. When they got to the checkout, they took all of that stuff and handed it to ME, to put away! Of course, the kid set up a monstrous howl! What a pair of idiots!

It's quite funny reading all this. But do you realise NO parent will ever see their own child as a misbehaving brat? Even though their kid might be behaving as badly (or worse) that the other kids they moan about.

I had a major falling out with what was a good friend because I told her child off for hitting a dog that was tethered outside a supermarket while it's owner was shopping.

We ended up having a full scale barney in the car park, and me telling her she should have kept her legs together (sorry!!) as she was unfit to bring up a child.

I meant it too. And I agree with everything that's been said. There should be parenting tests, or at the very least, compulsory parenting classes, especially as schools are no longer empowered to enforce discipline (any kind - not just smacking).

Not everybody can be relied upon to bring up kids correctly by instinct.

This reminds me..........Okay, now when I was a kid, if we were playing ball, jumprope or whatever in the street we always watched out for the cars and would jump up on the curb whenever we would see one coming down the street. If one of us didn't happen to do just that (which wasn't often) and a parent saw, we would get a good scolding. I've noticed, at least in the subdivions I have been in where I live, that kids don't do that anymore. They look at you with this look of entitlement and barely get out of the way in time, and this is with me going very, very slow. It's gotten so bad that the parents look at you the same way if they happen to be outside when they see their precious angel disregard the car they just saw heading their way. Instead of scolding their children they stare at me like I've just done a horrible thing by driving down the street.

I always drive really slow when I see kids along the street. Just the other day, a couple of kids were riding their bikes down the middle of the street. So my husband slows down. Now the kids don't even pull over to the curb. There were about four of them and because of the one that was in the very front, he was riding with his head turned completely the other way, we had to come to a complete stop. When he still didn't turn his head around and was still headed straight into us, with us at a complete stop, we had to honk the horn so he wouldn't hit us head on. Now, this little boy couldn't of been more that 5 or 6 and his mother was standing right there on the sidewalk. Did she say anything, no, but she sure gave us a dirty look.

My mom had five of us in the house....

You better believe she BEAT us! Threw shoes at us, knives.......etc.

HA, makes me laugh to remember.

My mom is 4'9" my little brother was taller
than her when he was 8 yrs old

It was NOT at all tough to respect my mother,
she demand respect, AND SHE GOT IT!

Something I remember.... my mother never hit us in anger. She took 5 mins to compose herself, then she whailed on us!



I think the beating did all 5 of us well!

I dont think people should have to take a parenting class or not be able to have children. Some kids are just extremely uncontrolable. I'm not saying it's right either to let a kid wander around the store either.

If most of these people took a parenting class, they would flunk!! Then they would breed anyway.

Originally posted by krazy kat2
If most of these people took a parenting class, they would flunk!! Then they would breed anyway.

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YOu make it sound like they are animals, when all of you talk about breeding.
Why give a damn how other people's kids act? They aren't your kids. How do you think the parents feel when they can't control them? I am sure it embarasses them more than you think.

Why give a damn how other people's kids act?

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Eventually how other people's kids act might impact on us. If Sabra and her husband hadn't been watching when driving down their street, a tragedy could have happened.

From the perspective of someome who worked many years in the restaurant business, misbehaving kids are a hazard. There are people carrying large trays of food, hot pots of coffee, and they're in a hurry. All it would take is a child to run into a server carrying something large and/or hot, and who gets the worst of it? Probably the child.

When I'm in the grocery store or other stores, I don't want to worry about kids running around, knocking things over, or opening packages. Just look at the inconvenience one boy caused to a lot of Wal-Mart employees and shoppers, according to krazy kat 2.

I know some parents are embarrassed by their children's behavior, but too many are willing to blame everyone else for their problems. I know some children are out of control through no fault of the parents, but most can be dealt with by a little structure and consistency.

No, Tigger most animals act better than a lot of kids. And most breeders control breeding more than a lot of women do. I am not saying that all kids are little brats, far from it. I have worked retail, and food service, so I also know from experience how unsupervised children can be hazardous. I watched 2 unsupervised kids knock down an 85 year old lady with a walker in a store I worked at in Missouri. She had to be taken away in an ambulance. We never did find out how she was. She was a regular customer, a real dear, and we never saw her again. The mother acted like the poor woman should not have been her kid's way. Most mothers at least try to watch their kids, and make them behave. The ones that don't are the problem.

I look at it this way: If something happens to a child, it's their fault, too, in a way. For example: we live on a street, with children on it, and the people's kids' across the street, are always running across the street without looking, riding bikes in front of a path when they see a car heading straight for them, etc. Yes, it is up to the parent's to watch them, but they should also teach their child the dangers. Does that make them an unfit parent? No. I dontknow...... my brain is fried so I cant even think, lol.

I had two children and both had spankings and threats to keep them well behaved in pubic. They both have thanked me for doing this. Some people don't believes its harder to spank your kid than for the kid to be spanked. I hope that makes sense.

I have no patience for rotten brats or their parents. So, today, my kids are grown and have completed college with a 3.75 gpa. Displine and love got them where they needed to be.

I have two kitties at home and they are now my pride and joy...Pesto and Ruby are spoiled and its fun to treat them.

Pesto and Rubys mom :girly1:

My parents (Dad & Mom) had rules for my brother and I that by some parents' notion of things to be overly strict and oppressive. The theory being that my brother and I would become overly suppressed uncreative drones.

However, as kids we got to go places most people wouldn't dare take their small children, (Classical music concerts, the Philadelphia Flower Show, long car trips to alot of different places) because we KNEW that Mom & Dad were NOT kidding.

Wouldn't you know it? I'm now a professional artist. Far from suppressed and with better social skills than many of my peers who had the sort of "discipline" that really wasn't.

The key is to SHOW INTEREST. Too many parents these days let the kids do their own thing. This is not always their own fault - time pressures and the pace of life lead all of us to pay less attention to things around us.

However - with kids there is only one chance at getting it right. Get it wrong, and it can screw up someone's life permanently.

We were also included in going to restaurants, concerts, dinner parties etc. There was an assumption that we had a basic knowledge of how to behave, and neither of us let our parents down by behaving badly (not to say we're goddy two shoes's - we both drink and smoke and Chris occasionally dabbles in substances he shouldn't . . . but we don't harm anyone or cause a nuisance).

From the persepctive of somebody who can't have children I saddens and angers me that kids are brought into this world, they are not cared for, brought up correctly or, in some cases even loved. When I think of what emotional support I could and would offer a child of mine, and there are kids NOT receiving any parental input at all. . .

I had two children and both had spankings and threats to keep them well behaved in pubic.

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Apologies Colleen but I LMAO when I read that line of your post. I know this is a serious topic but it IS about parents having children and you write that. A very fitting Freudian slip. Thankyou for the giggle.

I'm reading a book called Listening to Urban Kids. It's about a study done in the Philadelphia School District a few years ago. The researchers interviewed a group of students as they went through middle school. They wanted to get the students' ideas on what makes a good teacher and a good school.

Most students said that their best teachers were also the strictest, and with the highest expectations for them. Even though the students would get annoyed at the strictness of certain teachers, they also knew that it was because those teachers wanted them to be prepared for life in the real world. They wanted their students to be successful.

I think this is important for parents to realize, too. Kids need structure, it makes them feel secure. It also shows that adults care about them. I think too many parents today feel guilty about not spending enough time with their kids, and they let them slide on things so they're not the big meanie all the time.

Richard, my oldest son, had a learning disability. In order to learn something, he had to do it over and over. Each evening, I checked his homework, marked what was wrong and gave it back to him, to correct.

"Mom, you're picking on me!" was his response. My reply: "After a hard day, at work, there are things that I'd rather do than homework. I'm doing this, because I care and want you to succeed. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't care if you learned anything or not."