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I saw a thing on CNN today about the three girls who beat up another girl and put it on youtube. The three girls have no been arested and are being charged with some form of assault I think. Stuff like this makes me afraid to raise kids. I don't want to bring up a child in a world where this kind of stuff is considered a novelty to be posted on the internet for entertainment. You have to wonder what is wrong with these kids that they do things like this. Whats wrong with our communities and our parents? These kids are no facing a possible year sentence in a youth correctional facility. Once your in one of those places the odds are against you. The majority of children admited to these institutions end up returning, basically taking chunk after chunk out of ones childhood, and after that, you can all but forget about getting into a good college. How can you raise a child to think its ok to do something like that? Is it because the parents thinks its ok or because they just don't know how to discipline their children. I'm not saying you have to beat your children or something. Lord knows my parents never layed a finger on me but they know how to displine very well. I think it has to do with a lack of patience and a lack of creativity. I think a lot of parents are looking for a shortcut to having their kids both like and respect them, and as kid, thier is no short cut. If my parents were afraid to upset me, I would not have an ounce of respect for them. I think its not a question of disipling harder, but of displining smarter. If your kid is beating kids up, or doing drugs, dont just scream at them and lecture, cause we don't listen, and we don't care. You have to be willing to dig deeper, and don't be afraid to act drastically. To keep me off drugs my mom drug tested me for a year. I thought it was rediculous and so did all my friends. But it worked, and I really cant fault her methods or reasons. The bottom line is that I know my parents but more time and effort into me than I have ever put into anything in my life, and its humbling. It seems like a huge part of our culture is posturing. Kids watch tv and they see bad ass guys like 50 cent making tons of money, getting any woman he wants, and bragging about his violent past. Thats a really attractive lifestyle, which however, is not feasable for the vast majority of the population. It's really a matter of luck. The femal role models aren't particularly impressive either. Now I'll be the first to tell anyone that the root of americas problems are not the media. It is my oppinion that strong, involved parents are more than capable of raising a good kid despite that, but in lot of ways these ideas have expanded beyond the media. It's become a culture, that does whatever the fuck it wants and doesn't back down from anybody. I think its important to stand up for yourself in the face of aversity but ones methods are important, and if your not careful you can end up like these three chicks who are being prosecuted. It's important to foster healthy self esteem in kids, but one needs to be careful it doesn't cross over into arrogance. One can be confident and asertive with out being arrogant, violent, and obnoxious, and i think its important to teach kids the difference.