Unfortunately, kids get away with a lot these days because everyone is so afraid of getting sued, their kids taken away, etc... I’ve heard and witnessed way too many horror stories not to be cautious to the extreme myself. Sometimes a good swift whack on the backside is the only way to get through to an unreasonable child, but in public that will get your kids taken away in a heartbeat. Dealing with DHHS anywhere is demoralizing, almost impossible, and wholly ridiculous to the point of being unrealistic. I believe the best term would be egregious and quite possibly cost prohibitive.
at any rate, people are trepidacious because of this, and rightly so. this just adds to the problem and creates the perception you have formed (regardless of if it is founded or not, which is not what I’m getting at in this discussion).
I certainly see your point, I’m just trying to state the position many parents are put in. Some on this thread have acted as though parents go out of their way to inconvenience others with their children being whiny and all. All I am saying is that in most cases its not overt and generally most parents I have witnessed in these situations react as I’ve described - deal with the child as well as possible in public, move on and get gone (usually). Not everyone fits that mold and certain cliques/locales may be worse than others. No easy answers, and some people are just terrible parents no matter what anyone says - I just like to believe they are a very small minority.
“No easy answers, and some people are just terrible parents no matter what anyone says - I just like to believe they are a very small minority.”
I used to look at folks with tired (and therefore whiny) kids at the store at 11 pm as being terrible parents. 11 pm is almost after MY bedtime. But, nowadays I figure Mom just got off the second shift, picked the kids up from daycare/grandma’s, is dead tired herself, etc. and feel sad for them instead of mad.
I sure fear of CPS and lawsuits plays into it. I know plenty of parents that basically live in fear of somebody misinterpreting what they do with their kids and sicking the government on them.
But I think on a bigger level we have a chunk of society that’s forgotten that sound travels. We’ve got cars with booming stereos, people loudly discussing their sex lives on cellphones, and what I think is an increase in undisciplined kids. And there tends to be a pretty solid age group for all this behavior, teen through 30, somewhere around 30 they seem to be realizing there isn’t a cone of silence around them so maybe they should tone it down a little.