Personal responsibility goes out the window...

[Genie]

On a slight tangent to this is the whole hypocritical policy makers attitudes to alcohol versus smoking. Both huge money spinners for the central purse. No body ever went out at night and smoked themselves dead.

smoking takes a lot longer than one night but it does kill.

How does one teach personal responsibility to another??? I believe it starts the moment they are born...ok not quite but as parents we need to teach them..touch the hot fire you'll get burnt. So many aren't touching the fire until they hit 13/14/15. Let them burn their fingers while they're young..learn the little llessons before they need to learn the hard stuff. Teach them balance, control, self respect, respect for others.....the list goes on yet many today are teaching their kids the wrong stuff and they think it's funny until the child winds up dead or in jail. Wake up

[neels]

How does one teach personal responsibility to another??? I believe it starts the moment they are born...ok not quite but as parents we need to teach them..touch the hot fire you'll get burnt. So many aren't touching the fire until they hit 13/14/15. Let them burn their fingers while they're young..learn the little llessons before they need to learn the hard stuff. Teach them balance, control, self respect, respect for others.....the list goes on yet many today are teaching their kids the wrong stuff and they think it's funny until the child winds up dead or in jail. Wake up

You are probably right.

So are we now seeing the result of a generation of children who have been protected from everything, never told they have failed, never lost at sport because it's bad for their self-esteem to keep score? A lot of people seem to think it's bad for kids to do something if they might get scared/hurt/a little bit mentally traumatised, so the kids never have to deal with the consequences of anything, and perhaps don't develop the ability to think about the possible outcomes of their actions because they haven't learnt the hard way that doing dumb things can end badly.

[Lissa]

Have to say I never stole alcohol from my parents, I didnt have to, we had mates who brought it for us. But I did steal a can of condensed milk once and got quite sick from drinking it. I dont think I am a bad person for stealing that can from my parents.

I used to get very shit faced as a teenager, drank two bottles of wine in a short amount of time, got sick, had a massive hangover, but we all did it at some stage. For kids to learn moderation they need to learn it themselves, thats how I did, learnt how much I could drink without feeling too sick the next day, but it took years. Parents could allow there children to drink at home, watch them and let them learn in a safe environment what there limit is, but that doesnt help when the kids are at a party surrounded by peers who cheer them on to drink, commonsense always goes out the window when you get drunk no matter what your age but especially teenagers with no life experience. He drank a bottle of vodka... thats potent stuff right? We never drank anything other than cheap wine and beer. I feel its a tragedy and something that kids could learn from, but most arent going to.