Bad Parents? Really?

[johnfistyadams]

Answer: Ask if I can play as Luigi.

 

[lacktheknack]

As long as my kids passing and not get arrested he can do whatever he wants, Shit i'll probably be with him the first time he smokes pot and alcohol.

Smoking alcohol? That's a new one-

How does one smoke alcohol?

And this guy has a point, guys. Dont complain about your Christmas presents, and they put a roof over your head. Btw, I'm not 30 or out on my own, I'm 17 and at home.

Damn, ninja'd!

But I'm in the same boat as Shru1kan: 17 years old and realize my parents are awesome (and they're a lot stricter than YOURS).

 

[DRTJR]

I'll buy my child's games based on his skill if it's something i like and will play myself then it will be a good easy game
if i don't like he'll have to beat Ghosts and goblins

 

[Littlee300]

Thanks for making allowing me to feel happy with what i got

 

[lacktheknack]

They are legally--to say nothing of morally--obligated to put a roof over your head. That has nothing to do with why they get to be your guardian. It's not like if you live in public housing, that means those kids don't have to listen to their parents like the kids who live under roofs their parents paid for do. The right to direct the upbringing of a child has nothing to do with putting a roof over your head. Sure, if you *fail* to put a roof over you child's head, they take your parental powers away, but parental powers flow from the *relationship of the parent and child* no matter how broke-ass the parent may be.

I can say one word. Adoption. Hear me out. In some states, including mine, up until the age of 18 you can be literally dumped at a firehouse and sent into foster care.

They paid for your clothes, food, water, bedding, birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, electricity, hobbies, allowance, eventually give you their car to use on your own, etc etc. At any point, they could have given up and abandoned you, legal or not.

Now if they're "cool" (my parents didn't believe in videogames until I was 15, so I always went to a friends house to play once a week) they might buy you a play-ninten-box-thingamajig. Now, after all of those expenses (which total over 108 thousand a year if you want them to go to COMMUNITY college), you ask for a 300 dollar system and games, which cost 60 a pop.

They have every damn right to refuse you a system, a computer, a game, if they see fit. I wasn't brought up with a household system besides a desktop you could barely play solitaire on without it freezing, and was only allowed a half hour a DAY on it. Did I complain? No. Why? I knew better, I knew that they wanted what was best.

So, no, you aren't ENTITLED to ANYTHING after they pay that much money for your ass a year. No, I wasn't beaten, I wasn't brought up catholic, I saw the fact of life young. We aren't poor, my dad makes 6 figures a year, we have a modest house. I'm sick of brats that think they DESERVE things. Whats worse are the parents that get their kids into this mentality by not saying no and sticking to it (of course if some mothers learned to say no, they wouldn't HAVE kids, but I digress), and by extension, other kids, who see this in the store, hear about it through friends, befriend your child, etc etc.

Its a mutual shortfall of good parenting, but the kid has NO room to complain if they know how much love and money was sunk into just sending them to public school and keeping them alive and clothed each night.

Actually, I think I have a new hero.

You're completely, totally right: You aren't actually entitled to ANYTHING, not even your BASIC RIGHTS. You get them because you live in the right country, you aren't "entitled" to them.

 

[Danny Ocean]

*snip*

Which is the right train of thought to take?

1. Parents spend lots of money on you, they raised you and provided for you, so you shouldn't ask for anything.

2. They chose to do that. You have no say in the matter. That's just what being a parent entails. Why should their choices affect you so adversely?

It's the whole, "I didn't ask to be born/for this/to go to private school/to live in this house" argument. Sometimes I really do just want to shout that at them, but I never dare because I get the feeling it's easy to poke holes in it.

And thanks for the positive quote. I'm quite slow on the forums these days, often around the third page, and who reads to the third page?

 

[Phenakist]

Give him all the video games he likes, just keep him off the streets and away from the drink/smoking and he'll do very well in life.

 

[Aesir23]

Parents do sacrifice a lot for their children and it's unfair to them that they suddenly become 'crappy parents' simply because they do what they think is best for their child, even if the actions are unpleasant. They aren't supposed to be your best friend.

 

[Aerodynamic]

I am going to let them play, just not play fucking 10 hours a day, my parents never let me do that(which i thank them for, it was for my own good) and still dont let me and im turning out fine

 

[Epitome]

There have been a lot of threads on here recently along the lines of: my parents are crap because they dont want me to play games/took away my computer/didnt give me the presents I want etc. Being a bit older than most you on this forum (30) I thought Id add a little perspective.

9 weeks ago my wife gave birth to my son. After 9 months of pregnancy and a 12 hour labour that had complications and resulted in an emergency caesarean my son was born. It was the most awesome moment of my life. Since then I have been changing nappies, been shat on, pissed on, and vomited on. I no longer go out drinking with my mates, my gaming time has been reduced to pretty much zero. I changed jobs and moved from inner city Sydney to suburban Melbourne so that I could buy a house in a suitable environment to raise kids. I get 4-5 hours of poor interrupted sleep and get up and go to work 10 hours a day to provide for my family. Since my wife is now out of the workforce we now live on half the income we did 6 months ago. In short I have sacrificed a hell of a lot for my boy and its only been 9 weeks.

After 16-17 years I will have invested more love, time, energy and money in my boy than you can possibly imagine. At that point it is possible my son will be playing some sort of game on some sort of machine that I dont quite understand but I think is probably bad for him. I have no idea what I will do. But I might take away his computer/games/not buy stuff for him and feel completely justified in my actions.

So my question is this: What do you think you would do when you are 45yo and your son is playing Super Mario Paedophile Adventure on his PS17?

I think there is a very fine line between protecting ones kids and sheltering them from reality. I'm all for not letting kids play Rapelay or something, but censoring out parts of society you find offensive will long run do no good. Age limits on games are arbitray, whats important is that you raise your child to be mature and capable of analysis of what he is playing. Say when he is 17 will you forbid him to play 18+ games, thus making him a pariah among his peers and resenting you for coddling him? What if by then he is mature enough to experience whatever entertainment tech there is in 16 years but because you have failed to keep up you forbid him from partaking because you dont wish to experience it yourself? Your a gamer, how do you feel when you hear other parents blaming their childrens attitudes and behaviours on violent videogames? You know better and can be a better parent for trying to understand the world your kid is growing up in rather than by sheltering him from the aspects you dont comprehend but he will have to deal with.

Btw congratulations on the kid I hope you have a great many years of happiness ahead of you

 

[Rooster893]

First of all, get your consoles right. Second of all I would love for my children to play their first game when they can atleast remember the alphabet. Just like me.

 

[ethaninja]

So you're going to put an end to the complaining..........by complaining?

As a gamer, I'd like to think that when I'm older, I'll understand that the games my child is playing aren't a waste of time or dangerous to him/her in any way.
Besides, if I take them off him/her, they'll just complain about me on internet forums anyway, apparently.

Dito.

 

[Skuffyshootster]

There have been a lot of threads on here recently along the lines of: my parents are crap because they dont want me to play games/took away my computer/didnt give me the presents I want etc. Being a bit older than most you on this forum (30) I thought Id add a little perspective.

9 weeks ago my wife gave birth to my son. After 9 months of pregnancy and a 12 hour labour that had complications and resulted in an emergency caesarean my son was born. It was the most awesome moment of my life. Since then I have been changing nappies, been shat on, pissed on, and vomited on. I no longer go out drinking with my mates, my gaming time has been reduced to pretty much zero. I changed jobs and moved from inner city Sydney to suburban Melbourne so that I could buy a house in a suitable environment to raise kids. I get 4-5 hours of poor interrupted sleep and get up and go to work 10 hours a day to provide for my family. Since my wife is now out of the workforce we now live on half the income we did 6 months ago. In short I have sacrificed a hell of a lot for my boy and its only been 9 weeks.

After 16-17 years I will have invested more love, time, energy and money in my boy than you can possibly imagine. At that point it is possible my son will be playing some sort of game on some sort of machine that I dont quite understand but I think is probably bad for him. I have no idea what I will do. But I might take away his computer/games/not buy stuff for him and feel completely justified in my actions.

So my question is this: What do you think you would do when you are 45yo and your son is playing Super Mario Paedophile Adventure on his PS17?

I wasn't planning on having kids, and this hasn't helped change my mind at all.

That being said, my answer to your question is that I won't be doing anything, seeing as how I won't have any children in the first place.

 

[Hussmann54]

Yea Im 19 and I understand you completely. Too many kids blame problems on parents cause they need mommy and daddy to hold their hands every second of every minute. They dont stop to think "hmmm its a really nice day, I should take a walk instead of playing video games" or something like that. Then they get all pissy cause they arent trusted and they talk about bad parenting like they know any better. I think kids need to understand that when parents give you more and more freedom as you grow up, that doesnt mean you can just piss it all away. Go out and be a productive human being or stop using up resources needed by those of us who are

Anyways Im done ranting....

 

[Shru1kan]

You're completely, totally right: You aren't actually entitled to ANYTHING, not even your BASIC RIGHTS. You get them because you live in the right country, you aren't "entitled" to them.

My ego isn't so huge that I won't recognize potential sarcasm.

And basic rights? Yeah, that's TOTALLY the path I went down. I went through how a proper parent would pay for all your basic things and complaining about videogames and Christmas presents is ludicrously absurd. Which is the point of the thread. Don't drag out basic rights when we establish that the ones we are disagreeing with have all the basic things.

If I misunderstood, though, apologies.

And I gladly concede your point, Cheeze_Pavillion.

 

[Miles Tormani]

I was asked, nay, expected to attend three different parties in the last two days (two of which were Christmas ones). Yet, as soon as I got to each of them, I was superfluous. Practically invisible. Every time I tried doing something, I was either ignored, or told immediately to stop. Any time I tried to enter a conversation, I was cut off. You know what I wound up doing in all three cases? Standing outside smoking. Drinking MGDs. Sitting in the basement playing Halo by myself.

I think I have some right to complain about the bullshit Christmas weekend I've had so far, but no. My parents put the roof over my head and blah blah blah blah blah. I guess that means that my sleep schedule, gas mileage, and the risk of being pulled over for bullshit reasons all have to fit into their schedules. (I work at 3-4 AM normally, 2 AM for December, and pay for my own rent and gas, BTW.)

For me, the problem isn't not getting what I want (on the contrary, I barely ask for any gifts, and those I did, I wound up getting), but being obligated to go to family functions, then hardly treated like a family member once I'm there. I think I have a right to complain about that lopsided situation.

 

[Shru1kan]

Parents do sacrifice a lot for their children and it's unfair to them that they suddenly become 'crappy parents' simply because they do what they think is best for their child, even if the actions are unpleasant. They aren't supposed to be your best friend.

Thank you. THAT is exactly the thing to say with any kid complaining.

 

[BonsaiK]

So my question is this: What do you think you would do when you are 45yo and your son is playing Super Mario Paedophile Adventure on his PS17?

I'm even older than you. I will never be having children because:

1. I don't like children.

2. I really don't like children, I actually find babies completely repulsive. I don't know why I'm this way, but that thing people do where they see a baby and go "awww" - I don't get that, I get "ewww" instead. It's not a rational decision that I'm making to not like children, but an instant, innate reaction, like a gut-level instinctual loathing. If one of my babies ever came out of a woman I'd be horrified and happily pay her tons of alimony so I didn't have to ever see the creature.

3.

Since then I have been changing nappies, been shat on, pissed on, and vomited on. I no longer go out drinking with my mates, my gaming time has been reduced to pretty much zero. I changed jobs and moved from inner city Sydney to suburban Melbourne so that I could buy a house in a suitable environment to raise kids. I get 4-5 hours of poor interrupted sleep and get up and go to work 10 hours a day to provide for my family. Since my wife is now out of the workforce we now live on half the income we did 6 months ago. In short I have sacrificed a hell of a lot for my boy and its only been 9 weeks.

All those reasons (except the "drinking with mates" thing because I don't drink).

I guess however hypothetically if I were to one day be responsible for a child's gaming habits - I wouldn't worry. I'd much rather prefer a child to be on a computer game where they can exercise a modicum of control and (in some cases) creativity, as opposed to the television where there is no interactivity or engagement with the media whatsoever apart from changing channels. If it was something that I found really offensive I might have a discussion with the child about it to make sure that they understood my point of view, but if I was satisfied that the child wasn't taking on board the values of the game itself I'd be happy to let them play it. I played all sorts of sick crap when I was growing up, and still do, and I am about the most non-violent person you could ever wish to meet.

 

[RanD00M]

I would wonder how i had kid.No woman would like to have sexual intercourse with me.

 

[magnuslion]

and no one put a gun to your head and made you have kids. It was your decision, and you have the right to make it if you want, but you do not have the right to ***** and complain about it.