Posted on 11/14/2004 10:22:35 AM PST by Founding Father
Latchkey nation: Home alone in America
Why is the mental health of America's children declining so precipitously? Isn't it obvious?
Sunday, November 14, 2004
BY MARY EBERSTADT
If there is one subject on which doctors and teachers and other experts involved with children would agree, it's this: Over the past generation, the number of American kids diagnosed with mental disorders has exploded.
In January 2001, the Surgeon General issued a report declaring that the United States faces nothing less than "a public crisis in mental care for children and adolescents." Similarly, the National Mental Health Association estimates that one in five American children has a diagnosable mental, emotional or behavioral disorder.
This new reality is something many readers will recognize from personal experience. Diagnoses of Attention Deficit Disorder, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, conduct disorder, bipolar disorder, autism and depression have become all too familiar. School districts and college campuses across the country have been struggling with the accommodations required for these children. Millions of American kids are taking mind-altering prescription drugs; Ritalin production alone increased 700 percent between 1980 and 1990, and the number of children taking all manner of psychiatric drugs tripled from 1987 to 1996, according to one landmark survey of 900,000 kids.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Thank you for saying it. After 18 years with three kids in the public school system, that is exactly the conclusion I came to.
I loved just about every child my children befriended, the parents were constant problems. The latest example, a parent mixed up four screw drivers and served my 15 year old daughter till she threw up. Then told her not to tell anyone, it would be her and my daughters secret. Turns out she had been doing that to high school kids for 5 years and the superintendent and principal had known about it for years.
Thank God there is no more public school system for my kids. Now I have to deal with University of Oregon, but no parents!!!!!!!
I would wager at least 25% percent of these children are probably feeling the effects of their busy activity schedules. Answer for parents: cut back on some activities and relax with your children.
My older brother, sister and I were all 'Latch Key Kids" before the term was ever invented. Mom and Dad both worked. So we kids has lots to keep ourselves occupied. Homework. Chores. A huge back yard with trees to climb later in the day. After a dinner we all sat down to every night.
The telephone and television were off-limits until after Mom and Dady got home. We'd watch the news during dinner (Which started my life-long dispisal of Walter Cronkite) and maybe an hour later in the evening.
That was in the 1960s, so I'd imagine some kids were kinda F-ed Up in the 70s, 80. and 90s. F-ed Up, ignored kids grow up to "manage", not "raise" F-ed Up, ignored kids.
Jack.
You are completely wrong. You don't understand the USC, and how it has come to be interpreted over 200 years.
The fact that, for example, the USC does not specifically mandate a department of education does not make the formation of a department of education 'unconstitutional.' The fact that the USC doesn't specifically mandate the creation of the Fed doesn't mean that a national bank is somehow 'unconstitutional.'
Those things, and any others within a wide range of conduct, may be wise or unwise, and may be elective courses of action we as a society choose to take or not to take - those are policy decisions. But they don't make any of that stuff 'unconstitutional.'
It;s your kind of overstatements that harm the cause, and not help it. If you can't (or won't) accept that, you have bigger problems than I can address here.
I have a law degree and have been admitted to the NY Bar for 10 years. If you like to think you are an authority on constitutional law, enjoy yourself. Maybe even file suit to bring an end to all these 'unconstitutional' roles our government has elected to take. Good luck - you are going to need it, son.
First, I am not your son. Second, you obviously have not read any Supreme Court decisions prior to the mid 1930s. Third, being from New York I can understand why you know nothing about the constitution.Finally, because the necessary and proper clause, not to mention the commerce clause, have been misinterpreted by recent courts, doesn't mean the post 1930s interpretation is correct.
I could care less that you're admitted to a bar. Let me know when you've been admitted to the USSC bar---and argued a case before it. We'll compare notes.
Way to go. they'll make great husbands too. Good Job
I don't think many are buying that.
We have tons of psychotropic drugs which will only continue to be produced if the manufacturers get rich from them.
The need to 'invent' new mental disorders is greater now than it ever was and it is fueled by the pharmaceutical companies.
A lot of these issues have underlying spiritual problems but since we aren't supposed to talk about God in the Grand and All Wise Government School System many kids will never learn there is an alternative method for dealing with your problems.
Surely you aren't honestly convinced that depriving kids of the family time which they need to thrive is not affecting them in major ways.
Yes but back then if you got out of line there were likely neighbors who would call it to yours and your mom's attention. I'm not a 'Village theory' believer aka Hillary's Village Socialism. The moral fabric of the US then was so opposite to what it is now. Kids home alone with no supervision viewing violent tv, tv which disrespects authority figures, internet porn, and who knows what else is having an effect which emotionally immature and/or unstable children are unable to cope with.
You are colossaly wrong if you think that stuff like a department of education is somehow 'unconstitutional.'
I agree with you regarding the necessary and proper clause and the commerce clause, but that's not to say that the US Goverment is somehow automatically acting 'unconstitutionally' when they act beyond the mandate set by the USC.
It's you who clearly don't 'get it,' and I don't doubt that you are unwilling (or unable) to recognize the clear difference between acting contrary to the rules in the USC, and acting outside of them.
If you insist on clinging to 80 year old outdated precedent, well, that speaks volumes for you, I suppose. If you have any legal clients, I hope you let them know that you personally and willingly honor bad law. I am sure they would love to hear that one!
This article puts autism in this group, and how does
"unconstitutional programs resulting in greatly higher taxes, causing both parents to work to make ends meet (don't forget the women's lib mantra that you must abandon the kiddos and work for your life to have any meaning)"
cause autism??????
It is very hard to get a diagnosis of a problem for your child.
My daughter has severe speech problems and some other issues. She would qualify for much help except that we finally got an MRI for her. The MRI showed significant brain damage, so she nows qualifies for lots of help.
Unfortunately, I would much rather have a normal child than a child with significant brain damage.
marty60 wrote, "...do not leave your children to be raised in their formative years by a stranger..."
marty60 should enjoy the "Daycares Don't Care" website.
It has a similar viewpoint to Eberstadt's 'Home-Alone America', and consists of a large collection of information about the problems with day care.
The URL is:
http://www.daycaresdontcare.org
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