Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child - no longer

For the last three days I have been seeing programs on the television that have one thing in common - parenting skills - or rather the lack of parenting skills.

In recent times we have all been less than entertained by the behaviour of young people who either riot in the streets, 'hang out' in malls and in pedestrian areas at night, seemingly bored and bent in some instances of doing SOMETHING - usually destructive or anti social.

I am afraid that I too am one of THOSE people who blame the parents. If the documentaries that I have seen recently are any indication of what is going on out there then all I can say is be afraid, be very afraid, the children that are being raised (so to speak) these days are nothing but a problem for the rest of their lives, to themselves and to the community in which they are going to live.

What seems to be missing from parenting I have seen is the ability to set limits for children, the ability to say no, the ability to maintain a calm consistent response to the greatest levels of provocation, tantrums and what is known as acting out behaviour.

Children these days get their way on just about everything and in some of the instances I have been seeing they are actually training their parents rather than the other way around.

I know this sounds bizarre but maybe it is time that we did things a little differently. We do require that people learn to drive before we let them unsupervised onto the streets of our community, we require licenses for many things, we require continual learning and some examination of the skills that have been acquired. I am sorry to say but I think that it is time to consider parenting as one of those skills that may require an education. People certainly do not seem to have picked up the skills from their parents and as a result we are breeding and raising several generations of children who are now adults who are out of control.

It's time this was stopped and some discipline and some limits restored to child rearing.

Dr Spock recanted on his notions of child rearing some years ago. His latest comment was to use his book more frequently and a little lower down than had been the case.

Perhaps some parents can take that lesson seriously for a change and stop raising juvenile delinquents.