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Originally Posted by JP_1163
If you wait until your children are 17 and 12 to teach them responsibility and the only means you have at your disposal is to walk out on them and live in the front yard then you have failed as an adult and as a parent. Children model what they see in the world around them. Obviously if cleanliness, orderliness and ethical behavior are deemed important in the makeup of a child then it is important that the parents model the same behavior themselves. What they are now teaching their children is that when faced with adversity or difficulty in life the easiest thing to do is walk away, pout, sulk and roast marshmallows on the front lawn. Good coping skills are not evident in anyone in this situation. What I'd suggest is a meeting with the parents and the children where expectations are explained, consequences are discussed and a mutual sense of shared purpose is expected of all parties in the family. I suppose that everyone can learn something from this but all I'm picking up is that parenting 101 was obviously not on the curriculum in anyone's school system whether today or yesterday.
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Ouch, that seems a little harsh. I don't think the parents waited until now to teach the kids responsibility. Their son said it was inconvenient to take the phone out to them, but isn't the fact that he took it out to them at all a sign of responsibility?
Sure, they made a mistake in raising their kids, it seems like they didn't quite instill a desire to help out in their kids, however if you can show me one set of parents who are completely perfect, well, I still wouldn't believe they were perfect so it wouldn't matter anyhow. Parents are humans, they make mistakes. Personally, I think parenting is the hardest thing in the world to do.
My own opinion on the whole situation is that the strike is just a means of the parents to get their kids attention and that once they have their attention they will work something out. Sometimes doing something extreme is the only way to get through to people. And sometimes walking away is the right thing to do. It's certainly preferable to yelling and screaming at, or god forbid, beating a kid. A mature discussion would be great, but I remember myself at 17 and at 12 and rational thought was not always a part of my personality.
I think the worse thing this will do to these kids is embarrass them a bit in front of their friends (I also think a little bit of humility is good for people). I'm not a parent, and I would never claim to be an expert on parenting, I just wanted to throw out another view on the subject.
Heidi