The War On Terrible
By Bob Parks (09/20/06)
It's come to my attention that kids are playing a new game: pi**ing off parents... for points.
As we live in a nation of over 300 million people, this can't be an isolated concoction. If you've seen a recent up tick in open defiance from your kid, he or she may have just scored an additional ten points.
Now as this generation is “originality-challenged”, I wouldn't give them the benefit of assuming they came up with this on their own. So just where did this idea come from? My guess is look no farther than your own television.
With just the most casual of glances, check out channels like Nickelodeon where programs produced for kids have scenes at schools where teachers (adults) are the constant butt of jokes and exhibit unbridled buffoonery. The kids always win in the end. Check out channels like MTV that have programs like “Laguna Beach” and “Sweet 16” where spoiled rich kids lament their overburdened lives and again, parents are the main obstacles to any kind of deserved fun.
Rap videos where “men” have really nice cars, hot babes, cash galore... and no job. Programs that reinforce the notion that kids have privacy rights and even though we parents pay for everything they own, these kids feel they can do whatever they want and should we question it, they can even tell us exactly how they feel about the hands that feed them.
I can sympathize with Muslims who reject some of our worldly influences on their culture. I wouldn't wish MTV on my worse enemy who has kids. They seem to recognize that this is a destructive influence on children. Is it worth dying over? Probably not, but I think we can see what damage can be done by unabashed juvenile behavior made cool.
We have kids who think it justified to kill other kids in school just because they're unpopular. We have kids who steal iPods and forget that's what we call “grand larceny”. We have kids who'll lie about teachers who have the nerve to ask them to settle down in class and accuse them of some kind of abuse.
And now they're doing so for points.
Kids portrayed on television shows routinely tell off the very parents who house, feed, clothe and give them pocket money. It's “adults” in Hollywood and New York who write this crap, thinking they're being all cutting edge. It's bad enough when they do things that disappoint a parent, but now it seems as if kids feel empowered enough to verbalize their discontent.
Personally, I would have thrown myself in front of a moving vehicle on the highway before I called my father a loser, dissed his job (that feeds all the kids in the house), and truly believed that my financial and emotional support was an entitlement. Whether it be “The OC” or “The Real World”, kids have been shown that they can insult a parent and yet, they'll still believe that we should have the privilege of supporting their sorry, lazy butts.
I know we all try and give kids space. But at some point, as parents, we need to become more acquainted with the ideas being fed into the heads of the kids we're forced to support by law when the love runs out. The programming they watch on televisions we pay for are teaching kids that we are only here to give them what they demand, and some would probably sue us if they could to dispute a well-founded grounding.
It's time to declare war on MTV, Nickelodeon, Fox Broadcasting, The WB, UPN, and all the stations that are putting ideas into the minds of kids that were never seen or heard a couple of decades ago.
Do any of you remember seeing The Beaver tell off Ward or make fun of the fact the June Cleaver was a stay-at-home, loser mom? Do any of you remember seeing Bobby Brady tell Mike he had no right to ground him and that Alice was just a loser maid? Those shows were sappy, however they never crossed the line and denigrated parental authority.
Today is a new day. We parents are punchlines. We parents are ATM machines on demand. We are fools.
The War on Terrible has begun. Know your enemy. It's in your home and is turning your own against you. Every time your kid acts up, is it because they're kids and they do dumb things, or is their infraction worth 20 points? Are they keeping tally with their friends on Instant Messenger? I wouldn't hold it past them.
And for those hypocritical execs and celebs who produce this crap, but won't allow their own to consume it, your kids are probably watching it anyway. I hope they turn on you as you've taught ours to turn on us. I hope they tell you exactly what they think about you. They've probably memorized a script one of your writers created.
As for the rest of us, the options are plentiful. Boycotts are in order. Watch any kid-oriented show and you'll probably have more than enough ammo for a nasty, written vent to a network. But if this continues to go unchallenged, we'll have more uneducated, dancing, entitlement-demanding kids who will insult you and everything you've done for them right to your face.
If you think I'm wrong and assume your kids are different... they may have just earned 30 points.
Bob Parks
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