Accepting responsibility for your actions

[Ixion]

Contankerous, picky, and argumentative??? Ix... you'll never end up like that.

But I was ALWAYS cantankerous picky and argumentative. I was born that way.

Seriously - remember that lovely Cavalier poet :

"Two men look out through the same prison bars
One sees the mud, the other the stars"

Youff sees (mostly) the stars . Age sees (mostly) the mud. I prefer those who see the stars. (And one day , we'll bloody get there,too. They promised us) .

Perhaps the reason some think that young people shun personal responsibility is that society loads so much onto them at so young an age? Youff today is expected to take up a far greater burden than my generation was at their age. I wonder sometimes how their shoulders bear up to it.

[frogfeaturesFZR]

FWIW I don't think you can label an entire generation. I work as a Case Manager for Work & Income. Everyday I get people telling me their problems, obviously we don't see them if things are going ok. Yes there are kids 16 - 18 coming in with major problems, but I see National Super clients who equally come in, saying that their problems are of the govt's making, or the churches, or their social worker, in fact anyone but themselves.
One comment I would make is that manners can be conspiciously absent from
the 'younger generation'

[Ixion]

..
One comment I would make is that manners can be conspiciously absent from
the 'younger generation'

I disagree with that also. *Different* manners, perhaps, but by and large I think that youff (the under 25s anyway) are very WELL mannered and polite. Perhaps some of the formal graces are missing, but those are evolving things. By the standards of the 18th century we are all totally unmannered.

[mynameis]

There are a lot of under 30 year olds in this thread explaining

[frogfeaturesFZR]

Perhaps so, however please and thank you should be the bottom line. I guess it's treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. You win more friends with honey.........

[Ixion]

Perhaps because they have nothing to explain?

[Rayray401]

bah..just the society nowadays i reckon..(im 18)..people who are brought up with more discipline, respect would be more responsible..just how youre brought up really..i mean..20 years ago..it would have been the teachers voicing the education system..now its all about students..whether or not theyre treated right..are they getting enough freedom..are they getting respected by the teachers etc...and teachers in return gets all the shit when the shit hits the fan

[frogfeaturesFZR]

Ixion, if they are asking me ( theoretically ) to justify advancing them $1000 + for rent arrears the yes I am wanting an explanation for those arrears. I ask the question and 50% of the time I get a ' Dunno mate. Musta spent the money on something else' The thing that bugs me is sometimes these people have kids. I don't have a problem with people's choices, but when you have kids the choices effect more than just you. Anyway, Rant over.

[Ixion]

Fair enough. But, perhaps, working at WINZ, you do not meet an entirely representative cross section of young people (or old people for that matter) ?

I certainly would not claim that the whole of the segment of society that we label "the younger generation" (buggered if I really know what it means, people call ME a crazy young idiot!) are beyond reproach. But compared to what my peers were at the same age , taking all in all, I think they have little to apologise for.

Read Barry Crump if you want to see a representation of a much earlier generation and irresponsibility.

[cowboyz]

I wonder if the increase in Political Correctness has anything to do with the drop in personal responsibility?
.

Without a doubt.

[SARGE]

i personally think the state of things started going downhill when the government and child psychologists stuck their faces in and told us we cant correct the little shits ..

my son(13 at the time) started getting into trouble at school (not little things.. hanging out with douchebags .. smoking, drinking..generally being an asshole.. etc) and he told me that if i laid a finger on him he would report me to the police.

now .. back in the olden days.. when i did similar .. my old man would flail the skin off my ass with a leather belt ( or a hickory switch, extension cord, etc)

the little ratbags know we as parents cant discipline them ,... they know the cops cant do anything to them below a certain age and they push the limits


bottom line .. barring outright abuse.. your laws stop at MY front door.. im NOT advocating child abuse but we as parents must be able to discipline our kids .. fuck your anti-smacking laws... they cost me my son

[awayatc]

sarge is on to it.....
You reap what you sow...
a lot of kids grow up ok..
some don't, and as a parent you can only do your best.
Parents have been made powerless and toothless (just like teachers and police...) when things go wrong.
How can parents be held responsible when the state decides how to bring kids up?

[short-circuit]

i personally think the state of things started going downhill when the government and child psychologists stuck their faces in and told us we cant correct the little shits ..

my son(13 at the time) started getting into trouble at school (not little things.. hanging out with douchebags .. smoking, drinking..generally being an asshole.. etc) and he told me that if i laid a finger on him he would report me to the police.

now .. back in the olden days.. when i did similar .. my old man would flail the skin off my ass with a leather belt ( or a hickory switch, extension cord, etc)

the little ratbags know we as parents cant discipline them ,... they know the cops cant do anything to them below a certain age and they push the limits


bottom line .. barring outright abuse.. your laws stop at MY front door.. im NOT advocating child abuse but we as parents must be able to discipline our kids .. fuck your anti-smacking laws... they cost me my son

Sound like your problems with your son started long before legislation designed to stop physical abuse.

Personal responsibility is not learned through physical "discipline". The fear of "consequences" is a seperate issue

[Indiana_Jones]

my son(13 at the time) started getting into trouble at school (not little things.. hanging out with douchebags .. smoking, drinking..generally being an asshole.. etc) and he told me that if i laid a finger on him he would report me to the police.

Use a yellow pages. It won't leave a mark and it'll let him know who's boss.

-Indy

[James Deuce]

The fear of "consequences" is a seperate issue

It isn't. It's intrinically linked. The inability to accept personal responsibility is linked to a lack of consequence. The breadth of understanding in relation to "consequence" should evolve as one gets older.

Sarge's point is that there is a strong message from agencies outside the home that your parents do not deserve respect and that authority figures are your friend. You should have a healthy fear of authority figures (yes, you are allowed to start questioning their authority in late adolescence - it's how things "work") and be respectful to your parents. None of these groups need to "like" each other.

Society, in the broader sense, is founded on the principle of learning and accepting boundaries. I invest a lot of time in establishing and maintaining boundaries for my kids. Educational facilities spend a lot of time undoing them.