After stewing all day about The Doc's current situation, I've gotten really angry. He is, for all intents and purposes, parenting his 13 year old sister. Firstly, this is not fair to him as there is no reason why their mother should not be doing the basics of up keep (food, bills, showing up once in a while). Secondly, there has been no history of discipline. Now, I don't mean smacking the kids when they "get out of line," I mean instilling a sense of what is acceptable behavior if you want to get along in the household or in society at large (you know, the things that parents are supposed to teach but insist on foisting off on the schools, television, video games, etc. here in the US).
My parents did not believe in physical punishment. As a consiquence, when I did something they felt warrented punishment (letting a sheep escape when I was seven, for example), they took away "privlages." Yes, parents, television is a privlage. I had enforced bed times until I was in my mid teens and after that, an enforced curfew until I went to college. After years of this, I was kept "in line" by my own sense of guilt (and my mother saying my name in that tone).
Okay, I don't know where I'm really going with this, other than needing to get it off my chest.
My parents did not believe in physical punishment. As a consiquence, when I did something they felt warrented punishment (letting a sheep escape when I was seven, for example), they took away "privlages." Yes, parents, television is a privlage. I had enforced bed times until I was in my mid teens and after that, an enforced curfew until I went to college. After years of this, I was kept "in line" by my own sense of guilt (and my mother saying my name in that tone).
Okay, I don't know where I'm really going with this, other than needing to get it off my chest.
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