I'm sure this must have been done at least 347 times on the old board, but still. It's a slowish day for once for me.
Anyway, the Metro* this morning made me wonder if society really has decided to absolve parents of all responsibility for their children. The front page headline was "Drink, sex, STDs...at age of 12" and in the article, you've got clinic directors blaming drink and the high cost of 'leisure facilites' for making 12-year-old kids have sex. Then you've got the girl who had liver failure at the age of 14 whose mum blames "irresonsible advertising".
Now I don't think I hold with either 'it's all society's fault' or 'it's all the parents' fault'. I guess it's a bit of both. But what on earth do parents *do* in their everyday lives about this? Is it really OK to blame advertisers and schools? Is it really OK to expect parents to do more given the pressures people are under these days?
My mum pretty much let us do whatever we wanted - drink, clubbing on school nights, night buses, staying out, etc, but I never did anything *really* bad or really addictively like these articles seem to be describing.
I don't know if there's an answer or if so, what it is...
* I know! It's my own fault. I don't, usually, but it was on the bus and I finished my novel.
Anyway, the Metro* this morning made me wonder if society really has decided to absolve parents of all responsibility for their children. The front page headline was "Drink, sex, STDs...at age of 12" and in the article, you've got clinic directors blaming drink and the high cost of 'leisure facilites' for making 12-year-old kids have sex. Then you've got the girl who had liver failure at the age of 14 whose mum blames "irresonsible advertising".
Now I don't think I hold with either 'it's all society's fault' or 'it's all the parents' fault'. I guess it's a bit of both. But what on earth do parents *do* in their everyday lives about this? Is it really OK to blame advertisers and schools? Is it really OK to expect parents to do more given the pressures people are under these days?
My mum pretty much let us do whatever we wanted - drink, clubbing on school nights, night buses, staying out, etc, but I never did anything *really* bad or really addictively like these articles seem to be describing.
I don't know if there's an answer or if so, what it is...
* I know! It's my own fault. I don't, usually, but it was on the bus and I finished my novel.
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