Mabye I am not considered the “norm” anymore, but I DO parent my children, I say no, hold my children to a standard of ethics, teach them to treat others as they want to be treated and kick them outside as often as possible.

I expect them to have manners and treat other people’s belongings/creations respectfully.

We have a garden which all 3 of my kids help tend (begrudgingly sometimes) and eat from.

My kids also attend public schools and our phys ed programs are very good, they focus on activity and they actually have teams that *gasp* win AND lose. Sportsmanship is taught and encouraged.

My oldest just finished 6th grade and made the roll of excellence all 4 quarters of school. All three take pride in their grades, however my son had some troubles this last year but my husband and I delt with his issues BECAUSE we are his parents and it is our JOB to help him become the best person he can be.

I do agree that it is sad that some parents feel it is more important to be their child’s friend above a parent, and to clean up every mess that child makes. I don’t think this does the child any favors as they don’t know how to cope for themselves and have serious entitlement issues.

Another thing we have taught our children is to face the consequences of your actions, be it good or bad. If you create the situation, you have to deal with the aftermath.

I didn’t mean this to be a rant, I just hate seeing people lumped together due to their geographical location.

On an end note, I am glad your daughter’s health issues have a simple fix. I know how hard it is to have something wrong and not know what it is, the feeling of helplessness is pure agony.

After following your blog for many years, I was amazed to see Ari’s weight gain in recent photos compared to the past.

All the best for the future…

In the USA parents stopped parenting and have chosen to be their children’s friend over actually raising the child; this is now considered normal. Amazingly there is a trend to blame the teachers for everything the parents and children failed to do, and this is escalating the game they’ve been at for a while by pretending to improve education while actually watering it down, and covering it up by changing how the children are graded. Private schools are better because unlike public schools private schools can reject the disruptive and poor performing students where public schools are mandated to cater to them at a very real cost to all other students; it takes only one out of place student to ruin class for all.

I’m sure the sandcastle attacks were just intellectual property disputes, that or the lack of parenting is undermining Canadian culture too!

What really gets to me is how many 20 something year olds are willing to travel somewhere to end up penniless with no way home, call them human garbage because someone else is always responsible for clearing them away.