I was watching the news last night after we had put our kids to bed. One of the bigger news stores discussed excessive abuse at boot camps. My chin dropped, and not because I am appalled at the notion that they are abusing adolescents in boot camps. I am appalled that people are offended by it. This country has gone so far down hill with parenting that I am sickened every time it is brought up.
With the intrusion of Social Services into the modern family taking away discipline and replacing it with time out techniques was the start of the downward spiral. Yes timeouts work on some children, not all of them. My niece was a time out child, you put her in time out she learned her lesson all was done with. My son was not a time out child, you put him in time out, you put him in time out, you put him in time out and he was just stubborn enough to hold his ground. He was more of a "You have to scare the shit out of me before I listen" kid. In school tho, they didn't want to yell at him to even sit down.
With this imbalance of discipline you get the behavior problems, and like I said this did not affect everyone, but the ones who were affected ended up going to school and being told that there is this new disorder (personally I love these, any chance for society to fuck it up and they do) This new disorder is an attention problem, combined in some cases with hyperactivity. Sounds legit, but it is not. Children do not have the attention spans that adults want them to.. Putting them on drugs to solve the problem is a PROBLEM. I am sorry, here you have to admit that you suck as a person/parent/human. We have children, they are not born intelligent, they do not have any pre destine qualities that allow them to know, understand, and agree with this world. They push, they test boundaries, they learn. This is who they are and what they are suppose to do. WE as PARENTS should be there to teach them the boundaries, show them what can happen when they break the rules, get them prepared for life. We need to show them compassion, discipline, love, fear, anger, happiness. You can not learn how to cope with everyday life if you are not shown everyday life. If they get angry you have to show them how to keep themselves calm, they do not know it automatically. If they become fearful you have to show them it is okay, and how to deal with the feelings. Play with them and show them happiness and love. When they get hurt you need to be there with a band aid and a smile. If having children was suppose to be easy everyone would do it.
The drugs that the schools, parents, and even our government are pushing to calm these restless souls are causing more of a problem in the long run then you may want to think, or believe. Tell them they have ADD, ADHD, or depression, put them on mind altering drugs. By the way, do you remember when it was suggested that giving medication of this nature to those under 18 was a very bad idea? Now it is given to children as young as 4 years old more times then candy itself. These drugs have the effects similar to that of cocaine. Now I know what you are thinking, how could it be like cocaine? Cocaine speeds a person up, not slow them down like Ritalin does. You have to remember that the reason doctors have always suggested not giving medicine of this caliper to children is because the drugs that work one way on an adult mind work the opposite on a brain that is not fully developed. It not only calms the child, it has the same damaging affects that cocaine has. Heart problems, addiction problems, violence problems.
Now, instead of learning control, it is given in the form of a pill. Instead of learning how to cope, (ignore things that are less important like teasing, treat others how you would like to be treated, violence isn't the answer) We ignore, we live our lives knowing we can get a lot of stuff done because "Johnny" wont interrupt he is zombified in the other room on pills. Then like the ignorant assholes we have become with all of our free time, we are surprised the day "Johnny" goes into his school and shoots his teacher for embarrassing him, his fellow students for teasing him relentlessly, and himself because he does not want to live like this anymore.
Which brings me back to boot camps, the reason they are kicking the shit out of your children is because some one has to. You have refused to do it for so long that this is where they ended up. And if you would have instilled some discipline and paid attention to them along the way this wouldn't be happening right now to your innocent little child. They end up in these boot camps for being rotten, not following the rules, committing crimes, the only next step for them is prison time and if you do not want them there quit taking the easy way out with pills and gimmicks. Boot camps are designed to knock some sense into someone so they do not end up in a prison getting raped and beaten instead.
