Parental opinions needed for a college project!!

Soph

28 year old mum of 2 year old daughter and step mum of 11 year old son
Funny this topic should crop up as in my lunchtime I popped into a local shop, which sells ex-chain store clothes (is this the right phrase? - good cheapie place for kiddies clothes), to get my little girl a long sleeved top or two now the weather has turned colder.
I really struggled to find anything that didn't have some 'streetwise' slogan emblazoned on it in graffiti style writing and ended up coming out with just one plain pink polo neck top, which, although it has a 'Funky Diva' label attached to it, has nothing actually on the top. This label has a silhouette of a cartoon doll style woman on it as well and it just gobsmacks and horrifies me that this kind of concept/brand is associated with children's clothing (these tops went right down to the 'months' sizes!).
When you think about this it's frightening what kind of messages are being given out about what is acceptable in appearance and attitude and it does worry me about being able to bring my daughter up in a way that is now considered old fashioned, but which I consider to be the essential role of a parent (covered by lots of other posters). In general (and this is a very wide generalisation) my opinion is that nowadays a lot of 'parents' are simply not prepared to put in the time and effort required to bring their children up - they are not 'parenting' at all and I think when it boils down to it, this is the root cause of a lot of society's problems today.

missk_ensington

Is it not a hard balance to strike, you seem horrified that a parent is buying a 14/15 yo booze, but I understand entirely why they do it. I know what I was like as a teenager, worse because my 15 year old antics started when I was 12-13 because Ia've always looked and felt a great deal older than my age, I therefore had friends who were older and doing this stuff.

In terms of drinking/smoking/going out, no amount of parental control would have stopped me doing something I wanted to do. If I

BrokeBrunette

missk_ensington wrote: »

Is it not a hard balance to strike, you seem horrified that a parent is buying a 14/15 yo booze, but I understand entirely why they do it. I know what I was like as a teenager, worse because my 15 year old antics started when I was 12-13 because Ia've always looked and felt a great deal older than my age, I therefore had friends who were older and doing this stuff.

In terms of drinking/smoking/going out, no amount of parental control would have stopped me doing something I wanted to do. If I

sorry but I'll never understand why a parent would willingly go and buy a load of booze for 14/15 year old kids and think it's ok. Why encourage them to do something that is illegal for starters and how bad would they then feel if one of those kids ended up in hospital with alcoholic poisoning - and yes it happens. It's one thing entirely for the kids to manage to buy it, but for the parent to do it is appalling.

There is plenty of time to grow up and do those things, why the rush?

gravitytolls

37 yr old mother to 5 boys and 3 girls.

In the mood of feminism, girls have decided that they should be able toplay the field, give in to their carnal desires, as and when, without being judged, just as lads can. It doesn't work, girls are still branded as certain types by both sexes.

Quite why they feel the need to dress in little more than underwear to go out, and drink so much as to leave themselves incapacitated is beyond me. I guess it's to make a point that they should be able to flash what they wish, without risk of assault or assumption. The same with booze. And whilst this ideal should be true, it doesn't allow for the fact that young, tanked up, hormonally charged men, may not realise this.

Then there's the attitude of parents. It appears to be the norm for parents not minding if their children habe BF's sleeping over,in the same bed, from remarkably young ages. They think they're being liberal, and are friends with their children ~ citing the argument 'if they're going to do it,I'd rather they did it here.' Bear in mind, that these children often see their parents changing partners,if not regularly. but step families being the norm.

This family have made it very clear to all, that sleepovers are allowable if the guest gets the bed,and the other sleeps on the sofa.

Our girls do not wear mini adult clothing ~i.e short skirts, bobby tubes etc., they certainly do not have playboy stuff, nor will they. Ok, they may not knowwhat it is, only that it is pink and popular, but if they ask for it, we will explain why they can't have it.

It is an accurate indictment of thsi society when the image of Pplayboy is marketed to such a young age group. We should all be very concerned about this, coupled with the liberal views of their peer groups, andthe vast amount of information regarding the act available in schools, without much mention of the emotional content of all relationships.