why are children becoming out of control

[geniseboswell]

why are the children in america out of control are they looking for love

[animikokala]

Because the parents of today use bad babysitters:  tv, video games, the internet.  Also, kids today generally don't have to earn anything.  They all have their ipods and their cell phones from an early age, when they aren't even old enough to have earned it (7 year olds with cell phones and mp3 players all the time?....Really??).  Even in school they are allowed to pass classes and move on to the next grade, even when they are failing.

[asalvato]

It's not that parents use bad babysitters.  It's more like parents are no longer parents..

[ULuvCeCe]

It's not that parents use bad babysitters.  It's more like parents are no longer parents..

That's what she's saying, they're bad parents because the babysitters are the TV, Internet, MP3 players etc. and I completely agree. When I was a kid we didn't get everything we wanted, we had to earn it, we had age limits put on when we could get things, if we did something wrong we were spanked, grounded, sent to our rooms etc. I was devastated to be sent to my room b/c where did I want to be? Outside playing with my friends. Now they go to their rooms to what? TVs, Computers, Games, MP3 players - where's the punishment in that?

[vaa74mataia]

less sugar product and more vegetable

less coke more pepsi 

[gaylasue]

The lack of parental control ~ too many kids are raising themselves.

[ninajay]

I think it's all about the parents

[articx]

It mostly has to do with the parent(s), but there isn't a single reason. It could be because kids were allowed to get away with stuff (ie. talking back) while growing up, or the parent(s) try to be their friend, and this causes kids to no longer see them as authority figures. Another possibility could be because for one reason or another, their fathers aren't around to keep them in line.

[pierrecolas]

why are the children in america out of control are they looking for love

i love that

[loulizlee]

Bad parenting or no parenting.  Most of the bad influence on kids today comes back to the fact that parents shirk their child raising responsibilities and the fact that they are looking for love is part of that.

[mjklmk2010]

why are the children in america out of control are they looking for love

i agree i think the lack of parenting.. but in that the lack of discipline.. not that i'm for corporal punishment or anything... but wow.. a smack on a diapered but is childabuse.. so then what a time out.. really yeah that works..

[azrolator]

Children throughout time have turned out bad for parents that did the right things. Children have turned out right for parents that were completely awful at their parenting. It is  hard to pin down why a child turns out to be trouble as our children are not a number. There are plenty of reasons. If you believe the pop culture witch-hunting types like Tipper, then the answers would be that kids are out of control because they read a comic book(did you know that in the 1950s almost all the kids in juvenile detention had read a comic, so comics must be to blame), and also because of that hipshaking rock music, and because of violence on tv, and then because of heavy metal, and then because of rap, and then because of videogames.

 People seem to like to make up imaginary perpetrators that have caused their children to go wrong, because either they don't want to blame the right person or persons, or because they can't even figure it out where their kid went wrong and just need a solid, even if false, answer. I think parents have a large role in this and society as well. Sure we probably all know kids whose parents tried and did their best but still the kid was a bad apple  But I think most of us can agree that there are not just a few bad apples any more. The kids today ARE getting worse.

 My own father taught at the now infamous Buell Elementary. My mother had her own encounter with a 4th grade gun wielding child. But when these things happened, they were news! The child that brought a gun in to my mothers school and tried to murder his teacher, got kicked out for the rest of the year. This year when one of my wife's 2nd graders brought a weapon to school and held it to another kids throat, threatening to kill him, he was only kicked out for 3 days.  10 years ago it was less accepted for children to murder and attempt to murder teachers and other schoolkids than it is today. And I think that is a big part of the problem.

When I went to elementary school, if you swore, you ate soap. I only saw one example, it was disgusting and it worked to keep us from swearing very well.  We had a male teacher in one of the upper grades who was designated paddler for our area. I admit I got it... ONCE. They didn't bring the paddle out for every bit of naughtiness that went on. We were kids after all. But if someone just kept pushing it, wouldn't stop hitting or doing whatever he was doing, then action was taken. We would make the looooooong walk up to the front of the class, bend over the teachers desk, and "get it". Sure it hurt a little bit, but nobody was crying from the pain. When you got the paddle, it wasn't getting hurt that made you break down in tears, it was the embarrassment.

This is what we need to give back to our kids. Rewards AND PUNISHMENT. I can't blame the teachers or the parents completely. Spank your kids and live in fear that Protective Services will come take your kids away for teaching them not to be horrible. If the parents can't do it anymore, then the teachers sure aren't allowed to. We can't tell these kids that they WILL get away with it when they do something wrong. They will only continue to see how much they can, and in today's age, what they can get away with is a lot. Society must realize again that rules do not just need to be set in place, they need to be enforced. Waiting for these children to grow up and commit adult crimes, that is not the time to begin punishment. They will not learn discipline after being punished for the first time when they are 18 or more years.

[jwallbank]

Because the parents of today use bad babysitters:  tv, video games, the internet.  Also, kids today generally don't have to earn anything.  They all have their ipods and their cell phones from an early age, when they aren't even old enough to have earned it (7 year olds with cell phones and mp3 players all the time?....Really??).  Even in school they are allowed to pass classes and move on to the next grade, even when they are failing.

I agree with animikokala on this and I would also add Kids are not held reponsible for their actions. I guess I came out of a earlier generation. My parent's always held us accountable for our actions, not the teachers, not the Police, not the guy next door!! Nowadays there is always an excuse!!!We have lost the discipline in our society!!

[MudValley]

I've got news for ya'll....it's NOT just the kids in America. The kids up here in Canada are the same way. It seems like a lot of parents can't be bothered taking the time to "deal" with their children. I'm in no way a perfect parent(i personally don't believe there is such a thing), but my son and I sit and talk to each other for at least an hour every day. We discuss how his day went, what he did, how my work day was, etc. We talk about drugs, bullying, peer pressure, and yes, the dreaded sex talk has been had. My husband and I also have a rule that we stand beside each other when it comes to discipline and permissions granted. Our son knows that if one of us says no, asking the other parent isn't going to work. He also understands that if he gets in to trouble at school or anywhere else, its going to be twice as bad when he gets home. We both grew up in homes where if you did something wrong, you WERE held accountable for it.
 
I don't know what its like in the states, but up here, it seems like the court system is getting more lenient with the youth as well. When I was younger, if you did wrong, you were held accountable and had to make some form of repayment (or washing the graffiti, fixing the fence, whatever). Now they get told not to do it again.

I guess there are a lot of contributing factors as to why youth are so bad today, but the solution should start in the home.

[loulizlee]

I agree - the solution starts in the home.  Parents should be parents, not best friends.