Parenting: Lost or Lazy?

The article Parenting: The Lost Art actually kind of made me upset. It makes me so mad when parents say "I work too much, I don't have time". No matter how much you work, you should ALWAYS have time for your children. I am not a parent yet, so I guess I can't speak from experience, but I do have two dogs, which are practically my children. I work full time and go to school full time. I don't have a lot of free time. But I always find time everyday to take my pups on a walk and spend quality time with them. By not spending time with your children,. I feel like it is a form of neglect, even if all of their physical needs are met.

The biggest story in this article was "The Lost Children of Rockdale County". This story makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. The parents who were interviewed in this news story stated "They have to make decisions, whether to take drugs, to have sex. I can give them my opinion, tell them how I feel. But they have to decide for themselves." No! This is not how parenting works! How can you be so casual about raising a child?? These are children! They do not know what is right or wrong or what is best for them, so that is why the parents must be there to guide them. The children were clearly aware of this lack of authority, and stated "We're pretty much like best friends or something, I mean I can pretty much tell 'em how I feel, what I wanna do and they'll let me do it."

When I was growing up, I sometimes thought that my parents were the worst parents in the world. To me, they never let me go anywhere or do anything (keep in mind that this is in my teenage brain). Now, at 21, I am so very thankful that they were strict with me. I was able to develop values and determine what was important to me in life. I was able to grow friendships, but I also had the sense to realize that doing things to fit in with your "friends" is not what was important in life.

I know that when I am a parent, I will raise my children the same way that my parents raised me. They were (and still are) active in my life. I'm sure they will hate me for it for a while, but hopefully when they are older they will appreciate it like I do now.

But back to these Rockdale children. I really don't understand how it got to this point. These CHILDREN were playing sex games with each other. Where? Where on earth did this take place that no one was aware of it? How did these parents not know where their children were? Kids can be sneaky, sure, but obviously there was a huge lack of parenting here.

Was this because the parents were too busy with work and other things in their lives? Or has the mentality of parenting shifted to "They have a roof over their head and food in their bellies, I've done my job."? Are adults getting lazy and thinking that their child will just always make the right choices without enforcement? Do they do this because it is easier than arguing with their child?