Accipiter - 02 February 2006 10:03 AM

No, that’s just because you are loopy, Boo.

It’s interesting how in America it’s considered necessary to give kids all this medication to make them behave, when in some countries where they don’t resort immediately to medication the children act better than American kids do.

My point entirely Acci, I think our way of dealing with these issues is similar to most European Countries.

Mort - 03 February 2006 09:32 AM

Accipiter - 02 February 2006 10:03 AM

No, that’s just because you are loopy, Boo.

It’s interesting how in America it’s considered necessary to give kids all this medication to make them behave, when in some countries where they don’t resort immediately to medication the children act better than American kids do.

My point entirely Acci, I think our way of dealing with these issues is similar to most European Countries.

Such valid statements speak loudly and quite clearly…. I believe many laws in United States bind the hands of adults and press the idea that most discliplinary methods are abusive and therefore illegal.  If you are unable to tame a wild-weed, it grows beyond safe boundaries for everyone, not just the parents.  In an effort to ‘control’ children that cannot otherwise be ‘tamed’, chemicals are used.  I find this contradictory…. 1.  Chemical use to ‘control’ is more abusive than setting and maintaining parameters; and 2.  Chemical use outside specifically set set medical guidelines is also illegal in any country.  [To be fair to parents whose children must have medication, I must remind us all that in these special cases the use of Ritalin and other medications is justified.] 

Children (and even adults) do very well and feel more secure, when boundaries are part of their lives.  It is instinctually natural for a child to press those safe places, yet at the same time, if those boundaries are dropped, children become perplexed, aimless and anxiouis….which is exactly why they also become instinctively defensive.

When I first learned how children in America behaved, the crap they consumed, and the way they treated their parents, I was horrified. Truly horrified. I used to get walloped by my mother if I did anything wrong, and I would never have the guts to swear at her like some of these children in the States. There, if a mother smacks her child, the child can just scream “Child Abuse,” and the parent stops and gets arrested. It disgusts me how little respect some kids have for there parents, though I never thought I’d say it.

Same here Carmen. If my Brother or I ever misbehaved, all it took was for my Dad to raise his hand (He very rarely actually smacked us) and we’d stop misbehaving instantly. Mind you Britain is rapidly becoming as much of a Nanny State.

Carmen and Mort, thank you!  Funny how mankind survived for many thousands of years through all the billions of well-deserved ‘spankings’ isn’t it?  A ‘cuff’ or smack is not abuse, but the instinctual and justified delivery of nearly all parents in the animal kingdom to a misbehaving juvenile.

As children, we were also not permitted to speak back to any adult.  There were a number of ‘rules’ we learned best NOT from time-outs, sitting in corners etc., but from that sudden and swift smack.  It carried much more weight to our yet still-undeveloped logic and reasoning brain areas!

Mort - 02 February 2006 09:31 AM

Do they only prescribe Ritalin in America? I’ve never encountered any kids over here in the UK being given drugs to stop them being hyperactive.
.

They prescribe it here also mort.