Crazy parenting story

You didn't see parenting, at all. You saw what brats the children had become because of a lack of parenting. (Of course, it could have been just a really horrible day.


To be fair....my son has loved coffee since he was about 15 months old. Not that I ever bought him one, but he drinks it know at 11. (Caffiene free.) I let him have his first sip thinking he would hate it and stop asking for it. He loved it.

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I think everyone has seen stuff like this.Check out the Kids throwing trash in the 911 Memorial Fountain thread. Parents are afraid to discipline their kids,more so in public.

I was a the supermarket one day not long ago and heard all the way on one side of the store this kid screaming. This was not a kid throwing a tantrum. This was a kid who, in my opinion, was screaming in pain.A blood curdling scream that got everyone's attention. This went on for about ten minutes. With every scream it got louder and louder as I got closer and closer.

Finally, I got to the other side of the store I saw the kid screaming in the carriage.His Mom was right there talking to another Mom. Not sure if anyone has seen these carriages at the grocery store that look like cars for the kids. They have steering wheels and everything. Well, the kid who was screaming continued while another kid (a few years older)had opened the sharpie markers they were buying and had literally vandalized this carriage.The package with these markers were in the carriage. Numbers and letters and scribbles all over the plastic carriage.The Mom had apparently not noticed that her other kid was drawing all over the carriage because she was talking to this other Mom.

I can not imagine allowing a parent letting their kid scream like this for ten minutes or more but she was just ignoring it.I got there right when the Mom noticed the scribbles all over the carriage. She said something like,'we'll have to wash that off'. Another woman said to her, 'That's a sharpie.It will never come off. The carriage is ruined. What a shame. You should tell one of the cashiers that YOUR CHILD ruined this carriage.' The Mom dismissed it and assured her it would wash right off but she had no time to do it herself. The kid was still screaming as they continued shopping.

I wish I had said something to the Mother but I know it would not have gone over very well. I think the store manager should have approached the Mother and told her to have that kid STFU NOW! I also think the store manager should have called the mother out over the carriage covered in scribbles.Nowadays businesses don't want to upset customers or call them out for bad behavior.

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Spend a day at work with me investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect. It'll give you perspective and redefine "bad parenting" for you LOL

I'm not saying that what you saw wasn't obnoxious, and yes, giving coffee to such young kids is definitely considered inappropriate by our cultural standards. Either way, I'm honestly glad that was the worst you've ever seen. Lucky you.

Well, to be fair, I may have exaggerated it being the WORST (I am a teacher, after all), but I will say given the extremely short time frame (that was all within an under two minute time frame) it was the highest concentration of bad parenting I've seen.

I realize there are parents who abuse their kids and do far worse - it just shocks me to see that level of incompetency.

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That's a good point, Snafu - it is a societal issue more than a specific parenting one. However, I don't think these parents even THINK about disciplining their child and are afraid of what it might look like. I think they genuinely give in to whatever their kid is screaming about/doing and let them run the nest. That isn't to say that society isn't at fault for it.

The flipside, of course, is I think everyone in the coffee place would have rather she done SOMETHING about the kids rather than nothing.

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Frankly, I think this kind of bad parenting is just laziness. Too many people dont want to properly discipline their children, or set a good example for them.

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Yeah you don't need to beat a kid to make him behave. Stern words, eye contact, meaning what you say.

From both my personal upbringing with a mother who was a staunch believer in a good old fashioned ass-whuppin', and my own parenting experience with my kids, where I learned early on that there were better ways than the way I was raised, I reached the general conclusion that corporal punishment of children should be somewhere between never and absolute last resort. Maybe maybe maybe when nothing else has gotten through to a kid and it's some potentially dangerous situation. But usually things like redirection, letting them know (verbally) that you're displeased with their bad behavior, being sure to praise good behavior ... and yeah, giving them "that look" can go a long way.

"The thing was, I had something a lot of these kids don't have today -- fear of my parents. I was SCARED of getting punished or getting yelled at."

BINGO! And it's another reason why society in general has become to uncaring. People know they can get away with acting however they want in public because they will never get in trouble for it.

There is no shame anymore because people just don't give a damn about their fellow human being.

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I don't know if it's a societal issue or not, but it seems to me that nowadays, children can do anything they damn please. Parents don't seem to want to discipline their kids, and they sure don't want anyone ELSE to dare to say something to them, even at times when there's danger to them.

I witness so many instances when parents don't have a clue what the little ones are doing because they aren't even watching them. And then if you see a kid about to get hurt or something similar, don't dare say anything!

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And from whom did the 20 and 30 year old parents learn? I didn't just happen. Look to the Boomers.

haha, I'm a tramp!

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