Obviously there was a domestic altercation taking place here!

Now I don’t claim to be the perfect parent, I have made my mistakes raising my daughter, just like everyone else. That aside I am going to make a judgement call today, so I want to prepare you that what I am about to may offend some of you. If it offends you, and you think YOU are directly effected by it, then I am probably talking about you!

As I raised my daughter, I of course came into contact with other parents and their children.  I was a single Mom until she was 12, and I met my husband. Somehow that gave all other parents license to “school” me on what I was doing wrong as a parent. Everywhere I went, this person or that had an opinion on how I should be raising my child. Well now my child is all grown up, she’ll be 21 this September, and she is an amazing woman.

The parents with the advice? Their children have gone in a completely different direction from my daughter.  Most of their children are about the same age as my daughter give or take five years. Two have done jail time for drug related offences, two have had more than one child and a third is working on three children. All are unemployed, and bouncing from job to job. Hmmm, but I was the parent who back in the day needed advice on how to raise my child? The high school graduate? The college graduate? The woman who holds down a job in the big city, and has to be coaxed to take help when she occasionally needs it? Yep, I sure needed help raising her didn’t I?

Okay, so listen up! What’s with the parents of teenagers these days? I am not her to give parenting advice to anyone, but maybe my being blatant honesty about how I feel will make you think. Your kids are out of control people! And the reason is YOU!

So yesterday, I’m sitting at a friends place. He lives in a ground level apartment, and there is a door that leads outside to a little patio. We were just sitting there chatting about some projects we are working on together when there was a commotion outside. He had just headed into the kitchen to make another pot of coffee when there was a hurried knock on the door. I got up and answered it and in flew one of his neighbors. Something followed her which i assume had been thrown from behind her. I looked up to see who had thrown it and saw her sixteen year old daughter bearing down on me in pursuit of her Mother.

Obviously there was a domestic altercation taking place here! I stepped in front of Mom and barred the doorway. The teen tried to bull through me. Everything in me wanted to pick this little brat up and pitch her on her ass on the lawn behind her, but somehow miraculously I stayed calm. (I know ME stay CALM? you are probably rolling on the floor laughing as you read.) “You are not coming in” I said to her. She got up close and shoved me (assault) “YOU can’t tell me what to do!” she screamed in my face. “Get the “F” outta my way you bitch!” She shoved me again, (another assault) this time I shoved back. “You can’t touch me!” she screamed. “Let me in! This isn’t your house! YOU can’t keep me out!”

By this time her Mother was sitting shaking on a couch chair behind me, and my friend was quietly standing back waiting to see if I could contain the situation. Turns out I couldn’t she assaulted me again and slipped past me going straight for her Mother calling her very nasty names and swearing like a sailor! My friend stepped forward and intervened, physically removing her from his apartment and closing the door. He then went back to the kitchen and went about his coffee making thinking that he had taken care of things

She very quickly realized letting her in was the last thing we were about to do. She took off and I sat down to talk with Mom. About Five minutes went by before she came back pounding on the window and holding up the gas cap she had just ripped off her Mother’s car, and taunting her with it through the window. Then she ran off again

I saw her coming through the window and got up and locked the door just before she tried to open it. She began to bang on the glass window in the door. For a while we ignored her figuring she would get the point and go for a walk or something. Nope, no such luck. She began to pound harder on the window screaming “let me in or I’ll call the “F”ing police.” Yeah I know laughable right? Like calling the police because someone won’t let her into their home is going to do her any good. Thing is, she DID call  the police. She told them that her Mother wouldn’t let her into her own house.

What she didn’t tell the police was that this entire incident began BECAUSE her Mother wouldn’t let her into the house because she had threatened to DESTROY everything! Then she assaulted her Mother, and when her Mother ran for shelter at a neighbor’s she assaulted the friend of that neighbor who was trying to protect her Mother. What she didn’t tell the police is she is on medication to control her mood swings but she refuses to take it. What she didn’t tell the police is she abuses street drugs, and this erratic behavior is not new.

Amazingly enough the police actually responded to this call, and the situation had to be explained to them. I left before I knew what had been decided would be done with this girl, but the whole incident left me with a feeling that we as a society are failing our children.

I mean, WE, as parents, are supposed to raise our children to be responsible, moral, socially conscious people. It is our one and only job as parents. We are responsible for their creation, and therefore ultimately responsible for the way they turn out as adults. I have said this before, and some idiot always says “we are not responsible for our ADULT children!” To them I say WAKE UP! Of course you are! Children learn what they live, learn what their parents teach them, so be a better parent!

But being a better parent doesn’t mean what most parents these days seem to think it does. Being a better parent doesn’t mean giving your children everything they desire and demand, that only teaches them entitlement. Being a good parent doesn’t mean sheltering them from everything bad, and micromanaging their every minute, that just creates a socially unaware person incapable of thinking for themselves.

Parenting your child means saying NO when the answer should be NO. Making them earn what they desire so they understand the value of a dollar and that nothing worth having comes without working for it. Parenting your child means paying attention to them, and teaching them life’s lessons. Parenting a child means actually being INVOLVED in their life on a daily basis!

I don’t know how those back in the day parents thought my daughter would turn out, but it comes to pass that maybe I wasn’t so far off the mark in my parenting. Of course having raised a responsible adult, I think I am entitled to an opinion!

And that’s my rant for the day! Hopefully I will have some tickles for y’all soon!

Peace Out!

Rants & Tickles

“Magnotta Back in Court for POSSIBLE Psychiatric Evaluation.”… Really?

Luka Rocco Magnotta, just the name conjures up horror. Canada’s latest notorious killer has been caught and is in custody, but where do we go from there? Is Magnotta as bad as Dahlmer or Bundy? Would he have gone on to kill more people if he didn’t make the mistake of being caught in an internet cafe? Apparently that was his intention. Now Magnotta is in custody and his killing spree is over before he really got started.  Were there others on his kill list? The world may never know!

I am bringing up this heinous killer for a reason. Mostly because I read an article this morning that made me go hmmm, just looking at the headline. The headline read; “ Magnotta Back in Court for POSSIBLE Psychiatric Evaluation.”

Really? POSSIBLE psychiatric evaluation? Are they serious? Shouldn’t a psychiatric evaluation already be under way? The man did kill and chop up another man for heaven sakes! I mean it isn’t as if there was a worldwide manhunt for this guy because he crossed the road against the red! I’m thinking psychiatric evaluation should be a given not a possibility! But Canada has always been a country obsessed with the rights of the criminally accused. Which brings me to the question, “why do convicted criminals still have rights?”

Oh I hear you all screaming…yes I asked that question! And YES I do expect an answer! That’s right, I want to know why we are so obsessed with the rights of people who care nothing for the rights and freedoms of others. IMHO the world has created the crisis of criminality it now finds itself dealing with. In our quest to afford the accused fair treatment we have lost sight of the rights of the victim.

Did you know that if a person enters your home with the intention of robbing you, and your dog bites that person, they can report the bite and have your dog impounded and euthanized for protecting your property? If a criminal breaks his leg running away down your driveway they can sue for damages! I know! It seems surreal! How is it that in the act of committing a crime on your property a criminal can hold YOU responsible for any injuries incurred? I’m sorry, but in my opinion if I am protecting my person or property from someone who is committing a crime against me I should be able to defend myself without fear of retribution. To my way of thinking it should be the perpetrator who worries about arrest not the victim.

But back to Magnotta. The idea that a psychiatric assessment of Magnotta is “possible” but not required baffles me. After all, we are talking about a killer here not a jay walker. A killer who not only took the life of his victim, but also cut him up into little pieces and shared his remains with the world, and the Canadian courts see psychiatric evaluation as just a “possibility”? What is wrong with this picture?

If psychological assessment is not done on Magnotta, it could create a technicality later on. A defense attorney could arguably claim that Magnotta was insane at the time of the murders but was never given a psychiatric evaluation to determine his fitness for trial. In a case of this magnitude, no stone must be left unturned by the prosecution, nothing must be left to chance, one wrong move could put a serial killer back on the streets.

Of course, the psychiatric evaluation sometimes works against the prosecution. If Magnotta is as smart as he thinks he is it is conceivably possible for him to fool the authorities into thinking he is insane or was temporarily insane at the time of the murder. This is a difficult thing to do, but it has been accomplished in the past. The only thing Magnotta would gain from such action however, is to serve his sentence in a psychiatric facility rather than a prison. Although for some criminals this has much appeal.

Crazy or not, we all hope Magnotta is going away for a very long time! But that brings me to another question. Should Canada have the death penalty for heinous murderers? I mean when you think about it, why are we paying for them to live after they have taken someone else’s life?

Jus’ Sayin’

Rants & Tickles

“Don’t get raped” vs. “Don’t rape”

 

Look at this image. Read the words. Shockingly this girl is right! Our society does not teach “DO NOT RAPE.” Our society teaches our young girls not to get raped! How is it that we have missed this one simple thing for so long? How is it the burden of our female children to guard themselves against violation? Is it not the opposite that we should be teaching our male children? Should we not be saying to our young boys “do not violate”?

We do not teach our children “don’t get murdered”, it is an understood thing that murder is wrong. In fact most decent parents spend their children’s formative years teaching them that violence is a last resort and that we should resolve our conflicts in a peaceful manner.

Personally I think the blame falls squarely on accepted methods of sales and marketing. Let’s look for a second at today’s advertising practices by looking at this print ad:

 

Both ads are strongly sexual. What does this teach our young boys? What does it say about society’s attitude towards the female form?

In my opinion, ads such as these are what turn women into objects. They do not promote respect for women but cause men to view woman as objects they can possess. Once women are objectified, for some men they become possessions to control, and consent is a mute point. Such advertising is hazardous to women.

Oh trust me, I know there are many of you out there right now who are saying “that’s ridiculous! It’s just a print ad!” But that’s where it starts! If we do not teach respect for women by refusing to allow them to be objectified in advertising we are not teaching a “don’t rape” philosophy, we are feeding a “don’t get raped” society!

Jus’ Sayin’

Rants & Tickles

 

You Can’t Fix Stupid…Better Plan for It!

 Okay, so anyone who knows me knows that I hate stupidity! How it still manages to amaze me just how stupid people can be is absolutely beyond me! Everywhere we turn, stupid jumps out and slaps us in the face!

This summer stupidity seems to be attacking dog owners in large numbers! How else would you explain the number of stupid people that have left their dogs locked in their cars and gone shopping on hot sunny days? It has to be stupidity, because we keep telling them not to do so every time another idiot does it! But NOOOOOOO somebody else has got to go and test the theory!

This leads me to worry! Should we be concerned that there is a viral disease going around that might cause perfectly sane and intelligent people to suddenly make stupid decisions? Or is it simply that this generation CHOOSES to be stupid? Perhaps the backward slide in intelligence has been caused by the government’s need to attempt to legislate common sense? Everybody figures that they need not worry about thinking intelligently, the government will do it for them? Problem there is most of the stupid gravitate to politics as a career, perhaps that is another reason why we are drowning in stupid! Whatever the reason, stupidity abounds!

How do we fix this sudden outbreak of stupid? That’s just the problem, THERE IS NO CURE! One can not cure stupid, one can only plan for it!

Have YOU encountered stupid? How do you deal with it?

Rants & Tickles