Interesting you said that...after my Mom passed away, a distant relative wrote, as part of his condolence card, that I must now "emulate" my parents.(Dad died in 1994). I accept the challenge with both sadness and pride.
That was a pretty broad statement and I don't know if it is universally true but I think it is pretty prevalent. We all know there are plenty of kids who want nothing more than to rebel against their parents. But it certainly is truer for the younger ages. When we are wee little ones we do look up to our parents and try to do what they do and be like them. Human nature I suppose. Frankly, animal nature since we see it in the animal kingdom as well. Sorry to hear about your mom and sorry for your loss. My dad passed back in 2015. I tended to be a bit of a rebellious element in our house and tried to do things differently from him once I understood what independence was. But now that he's gone I look at myself and realize how similar to him I really am. I still have my mom but we seem to be growing further apart rather than closer as she gets older. I do feel that even at the age of 56, going on 57, I have lots of room for improvement.
When Tee Vee and big daddy government are supporting the family and raising the kids, not a lot surprises me anymore
I regularly meet people who were raised (if that's even the right word) by people who, in turn, were raised by people who were morally or mentally unfit to even try to rear children. No way to know where it started but it's a sub-cycle of the society level one described above and usually is just as unbreakable. The sure result is that (no better word for it) iniquity compounds over succeeding generations. You all have seen it even if you don't recognize it as such. From my line of work I could tell you many first hand stories but the most frightening part to me is always how deviancy is defined down: how iniquity is first redefined, then accepted and finally defended as normal...to the point that if you don't respect what once was dangerous iniquity, there's now something wrong with YOU. An illustration: several years ago I finally saw the news report that I knew would eventually show up. A career criminal, an armed, violent thief, was shot and paralyzed breaking into someone's house. His sister was interviewed on the local news camera. She complained that her criminal brother was shot "just doing his job" and - no joke - asked in all sincerity "How is he supposed to make his living now?" That didn't happen overnight nor in a vacuum. They were raised by people who let them believe the paths they were on were just fine, or at the very least didn't bother telling them the paths were wrong. Or such people were absent. Take your pick, the results are the same. Mentioned all that because the same general principle applies in the, at first glance, isolated and unrelated op situation. It isn't isolated nor unrelated. Tiny things are cumulative; they add up and eventually affect us all, never positively. There's a cost to us all and the bill always comes due.
Very true. I have even seen parents, who regularly smoke Marijuana with their kids. Then, these same parents are surprised when these same kids start doing heavier drugs. These are parents making 150-300k a year, conservatively.
Can't recall but while sections of Florida are a madhouse, these days it could have been literally anywhere.
I'll add in the obvious: Many parents these days also do not believe in the word "no" or in effective consequences when "no" is violated. So, kids get to do what they want. But, the bathing suit (and any dress code issues) are at least somewhat solved by "I'm not buying that for you" and "You're not going out of the house dressed like that". To take a relatively tame issue... I never would have been allowed out of the house in my pajama bottoms and if I had, I would have been mortified to have done so. Now schools even have "wear your pajamas to school days." For me, it comes down to learning respect for your own self and respect for others. Just because it's fashionable/sexy/trendy/comfortable, doesn't mean it's respectful to myself, to others, or to the social situation I'm in. Just 'cuz you think you "got it" -- and let's face it, you probably don't -- doesn't mean you should flaunt it.
then there is the adult bomshell wearing very little walking down the street and if you look to hard you are a chauvinist..another topic..the peacock..
When I was in (public) grammar school, I remember we had a kid almost sent home because he didn't have socks on in the Winter. (Found out years later that he was being observed under suspicion of parental neglect. But, that's another story, I guess.)
In my 32 years of teaching in a public high school, I found both sexes sorely lacking in modesty. I saw far too much cleavage, butt cracks(on both sexes) exposed bra straps ( a notion I always found very embarrassing) boxer shorts, etc. Not every kid was dressed that way, but all it takes is a few for me to feel very uncomfortable. I made me feel like I had accidentally walked in on someone while they were getting dressed.
I suppose I can appreciate parental neglect as a reason, but I wonder if he was doing that because his friends were also.
I just want to say, my wife is a teacher. She got into it, later in life, after giving up the corporate world. Each year, they make teachers dress in Pajamas, on Pajama Day. It pisses me off, each time, and i raise a stink, every time. Before she leaves, I make sure the outfit doesnt have anything inappropriate showing, when she moves around, or bends over. Ok, Im getting annoyed, just thinking about Pajama Day, and its summer.
Can't say for sure; too long ago. But, IIRC no socks wasn't a fashion statement back then. To give some context, this was the era of knee high tube socks.
My late grandfather made a comment about the TV shows and what people were or more correctly, weren't wearing. This was around the early 90's. He said in his day, "the women folk would call the law on a man, if he took his shirt off while working, on a hot summer day". Then he just shook his head. How thing change....... tp