Posted on 10/10/2008 6:34:20 AM PDT by PROCON
Sometimes, Jennifer Ross feels she cannot make a move at home without inviting the scorn of her daughters, Grace, 10, and Eliza, 7. The car she drives? A flagrant polluter. The bath at night to help her relax? A wasteful indulgence. The reusable shopping bags she forgot, again? Tsk, tsk.
"I have very, very environmentally conscious children - more so than me, I'm embarrassed to say," said Ross, a social worker in Dobbs Ferry, New York. "They're on my case about getting a hybrid car. They want me to replace all the light bulbs in the house with energy-saving bulbs."
Ross's children are part of what experts say is a growing army of "eco-kids" - steeped in environmentalism at school, in houses of worship, through scouting and even via popular culture - who try to hold their parents accountable at home. Amid their pride in their children's zeal for all things green, the grown-ups sometimes end up feeling like scofflaws under the watchful eye of the pint-size eco-police, whose demands grow ever greater, and more expensive.
They pore over garbage bins in search of errant recyclables. They lobby for solar panels. And, in a generational about-face, they turn off the lights after their parents leave empty rooms.
"Kids have really turned into the little conscience sitting in the back seat," said Julia Bovey, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading environmental group that recently worked with Nickelodeon on a series of public service announcements and other programming called "Big Green Help."
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Ping!
Dobbs Ferry, an extension of the upper West side of the city.
Just tell them that they are looking to get written out of the will. The inheritance will go to the NRA.
I understand the words, but they make no sense? How could somebody be greener than a social worker?
Owl_Eagle
“When the stock market crashed,
Franklin Roosevelt got on the television
and didn’t just talk about
the princes of greed, he said,
‘Look, here’s what happened.’"
-Slow Joe Biden
Jennifer Ross needs to explain fully to her children the metaphor of ‘mother earth’ that they have no-doubt heard of a hundred times for each year of public school. For example, it makes no sense that the earth is our mother because that is the same as one species giving birth to another species. If the earth were a mother, she would beget other earths. She does not. Secondly, if the earth were our mother, what a bloodthirsty bitch she is! Consider how many of her own children she kills. And not only that she forces them to eat one another (consider the animal kingdom alone), live in the most squalid of conditions, and scrape and scratch simply to survive. What kind of mother does this to her children? Perhaps Jennifer could ask her own children of they would like their real mother to do the same to them. Come on Jennifer Ross, fight back!
This is why you ALWAYS straighten out the BS coming home from school. You do not let it go for a day, you do not let the smallest infraction slide. Always replace idiocy with common sense and logic and your children will thank you for it (mine have).
As usual, this article conflates common-sense conservation measures (that is, conserve your own money by turning off the lights and water), with an overall Green Cult worldview. It’s obnoxious.
And if my kids criticized me for driving a polluting van, I would stop driving them anywhere. Walk or get someone else to drive you, smart-mouthed brat. People who let their children push them around probably vote Democrat.
This part is what bugs me. The schools want to teach environmentalism... I'd say they make sure the kids can spell it first. The other night we were watching a local news show on a partnership of some kind between a local school and local bank, designed to teach these kids (who looked to be maybe middle school aged) about banking. The teacher raved how the kids were asking about the federal bailout, how banks work, etc., and isn't this great. I said to my husband, why don't they make sure the kids know the underlying math first? I bet some of these kids who now are learning all about "banking" couldn't make correct change out of a cash drawer.
Some of these parents need to learn to just tell their kids to shut the hell up.
They need their backsides blistered!
Or don’t send them to school.
I see none of this crap amongst the kids at my church. All respect their parents as THE authority in their life. The boys play with guns and swords on the lawn after services; they carry knives on their belts, etc.
90% of the families homeschool.
Very easy to “one up” them.
Electronic equipment, most toys, designer cloths - in fact too many cloths, fast food, etc. Clamp down and the children will come around to a reasonable compromise.
Whoa, gaiaism has even infected the Boy Scouts?
Jennifer needs to tell her daughters to go play with Barbie and relax. Once your youth is gone there’s no gettin it back. Enjoy it while you can kid!
Sounds like Mom better get a hold of discipline in her house, or she’s got a lot of rough years ahead of her.
Yep. I send my kids to private school, but a little bit of it gets through (mainly through other kids.) I survived school by being rational and remembering the lessons at home. Unfortunately, my brother wasn't able to do that as well and my parents lost him to the dark side.
Some let their children shame them.
SOME call it a teachable moment, and teach their kids the Truth. (and then pull them out of school).
The long march through the institutions is almost complete ...
The little Communist apparatchicks have learned their lessons well at the feet of the NEA. Now wait until Obama’s armed Brown Shirt street thugs come around to haul you away in the dead of night for not separating your recyclables.
Boy Scouts have “Environmental Science,” which both my sons said was mainly about practical things like flood control, pollution, air and water quality. Cub Scouts get lessons about turning the water and the lights off, not littering, and so forth.
Girl Scouting materials are ideologically or religiously Green, so that’s probably what the article was talking about.
About 12 years ago, my 9 year old son admonished me for putting fertilizer in my flower bed. He explained that his teacher had told him that I was poisoning well water when I did that which would subsequently kill all kinds of flora and fauna. I sat him down and told him to tell his teacher these exact words:
1. We are on the city sewer system. We have no wells in the backyard.
2. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!!
Dude, we must go to the same church.
I can’t even argue with my kids about this stuff cause we share the same opinion about the envirowhacko’s.
God gave us the earth for our use, so let’s use it.
These whiny pablum parents need to get over the fear of their kids and step up and be parents. Lay down the law that whatever happens in their house is up to them, not some stupid union thug teacher.
I refuse to participate in our city recycling program cause it’s not cost effective. It costs too much to separate out the plastics and non-ferrous metals. Plus, I’m not going to spend time and money washing out empty cans for the recycling clowns. THe city delivered a bin to me and charged me $9.85 for it. I tried unsuccessfully to get a refund.
“People who let their children push them around probably vote Democrat.”
You have spoken truth here.
Such parents are unaware of what the back of their hand is for. They need to be educated. /S
“they carry knives on their belts, etc.”
Gosh, I never realized this was part of a homeschooling curriculum. I never see the homeschoolers down the street carrying knives.
They want to recycle, fine put them in charge of it. They want to replace light bulbs with gore-bulbs, fine, save your allowance. They want you to drive a hybrid, fine, all they got to do is come up with the downpayment.
More likely girl scouts. Boy scouts have always been deep into the practive of conservationism, but not much into radical environmentalism.
I’m sure not arguing for wastefulness (and I’m sure you’re not either, faithful steward) - I do use the recycling bin.
The HUGE thing I see with this is that the little brownshirt Hitler Youth that the left is training up are eventually going to be reporting on their parents to some authority that will come and punish the parents for thought crimes.
I envision some “compound” in Montana calling our names...
I asked my 12 year old what happened at school. He replied, “We had to watch a propaganda program about saving the earth in social studies today.” I was proud that he was aware enough to recognize it when he saw it.
The green stuff I do saves me money in the end. Never thought of saving money as communist.
Utility knives, “leatherman” variety, etc.
I only point it out because such a device would NEVER be allowed in the zero tolerance PC indoctrination centers. Heck, the kid would probably be arrested.
Same here. And when the kids ask why we don't use the recycle bin, as some of the neighbors do, I say, "Because we think it's a waste of our tax money."
When I grew up, if you did that crap, BAM! one good slap upside the noggin.
Kids are little dictators and government and school empowers them. Soon they will say to the kids, "Now children, TODAY's community service assignment for extra credit is to get together with your friends in groups of four, and make out lists of how many of your parents have weapons at home, and what kind of weapon, and precisely where they are. Encourage your team mates to tell the other three everything there is to know, and then, team leader, report that to the teacher. We will build a safe, peaceful community together!"
I have a daughter who has been somewhat indoctrinated by our local school system. This line applies to me. I'm not embarrassed, though; just proud. We have had discussions about global warming and she understands that is a myth. The compromise we have reached is that we will utilize the city provided recycle bins to the best of our ability.
My oldest daughter, on the other hand, gets the younger one pissed off by calling her a tree hugger. Peer pressure works sometimes.
These are PRECISELY the kinds of little monsters being raised up in Venice, California, who did that Obama singing video. Did you see their liberal parents all smirking!? Those are the kids who will turn them in for incorrect thinking, ten years later, or even exteme kids will turn out as the next Adam Gahdan in some cave in Pakistan fightin for the Taleban.
I know you were joking, but seriously, if you told some of these people that, they would call Social Services and report you as an abuser just for mentioning it.
Ooooh! Good one!
Not a single doubt in my mind.
How many parents have heard the words, "Child abuse! Child abuse!" from the kids?
Poor ickle Liberal!
The nasty ‘lil social worker (great example of a “useless eater” if there ever was one) finds that the socialism infested Big Sh*tty school systems have propagandized her spawn.
She is Not outrage over the blatant propagandizing of her whelps. She is only chagrined that her whelps are “more environmentally aware” than she is.
With kids like that in the car, I'd think I'd start smoking.
Sheesh. Has back home in the USA gotten THAT bad??!!
I haven’t watched the video, as my husband’s internet security system tends to block video transmission. Not sure why ... but it also tells my son that he can’t access Free Republic from the schoolroom computer because it has “sex education.”
I agree with you, though. It’s traditional for the True Believers’ children to consider their parents ideologically unsound and turn them in.
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