Friday, June 09, 2006

Mom on Strike? WTF?

Is it just me, or does the idea of a parent going on strike to teach their domesticated yard apes a lesson seem as smart as Greedo shooting first? What? Giving "time out" didn't work?

I have had those, "You are going to clean your room, young man" conversations with my mother. Usually, she threatened with a spanking, and that was often more than enough to get me to clean up. Don't get the wrong idea. My parents didn't beat me every Friday. I've had two spankings in my life. Once, when I was four, my younger brother and I walked from our house to Main Street to mail a letter to our favorite uncle. Another time, even earlier, I broke the glass on a screen door. I had tried to keep my younger brother out of the house, and was pushing against the glass.

So the touchy-feely, no-spanking parenting isn't working?

Imagine my surprise.

We live in an age where kids play too many "vid-yah games" and go on shooting sprees; where they watch too many Bugs Bunny cartoons and they try to drop anvils on people; where they watch Barney; and where there is a cable TV channel for babies! FOR BABIES! FOR FREAKIN' BABIES! Now, parents can plop their kids in front of the TV from birth until they move out after graduation and won't have to be inconvenienced by havin' to tend to the little monsters.

As much as I love TV, I blame it for a lot of America's problems. It's driven us off our front porches and into the deepest, darkest, quietest part of our homes. It keeps us indoors in the summer while we watch documentaries about the desert. It keeps us at home on our vacation while we watch the Travel Channel. It keeps us from speaking to our neighbors so we can watch the Biography channel to learn all about our favorite celebrities. It keeps us from reading newspapers or history books while we watch the History Channel before we watch the news.

If Bugs Bunny on TV is so bad, if Grand theft Auto on TV is sooo bad, if Married. . . With Children is soooo freakin' bad, why they Hell are we parking our kids in front of a TV? So we can cook supper?

1 Comments:

Blogger Clarissa said...

It'd also be good if people actually thought about whether they really want kids before they start reproducing. The "accidents" are obvious 'without thought'examples -- but even the 'wanted' kids are 'wanted' because its the thing to do ... the next step in this thing called life. People don't seem to realise that they can make the choices. If they make the choice to have a kid; there's no going on strike.

There is a FANTASTIC monologue given by Sydney Poitier in Look Who's Coming to Dinner. I wish I could find it. In a nutshell, he cuts off with words to the effect: "No, I don't owe you anything. YOU owe me. From the moment I came into this world -- from the moment you became a parent, you OWEd me.

3:13 AM  

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