Jubbergun wrote:
The problem with this isn't that some fat old lady's feelings were hurt and she cried. The problem with this is that no one disciplines their children and teaches them how to act in public, mostly because we're too worried about their goddamn self-esteem, but also because everyone gets their fucking nose out-of-joint when it's pointed out they're a lousy, piece-of-shit, fuck-off of a parent. "Don't tell me how to raise my kid!!!" Bunch of stupid assholes.
Mostly this but I think there are also other factors such as widespread abuse of substances (legal and otherwise), the problems with having two working parents, and the social attitudes engendered by overpowered currency (which inclines people to try to buy their way out of problems).
I remember some years ago, after I had a nervous breakdown, my father asked a counselor who had our respect, "Now, Imma ask you, and I want you to answer straight, do you think we're bad parents?" The counselor (who recounted the anecdote to me) paused, and slowly replied, "I think you have a lot of anxiety..." She did not answer truthfully not because she wanted to tell him what he wanted to hear, but because she knew that he didn't really want an honest answer at all.
Some years before this, my parents took me to a series of shrinks, not because I had any actual problems that needed fixing but because they flat-out didn't want to do parent-type stuff like listening to me talk or being supportive. When the fourth shrink they went to basically told them to stop sucking, they simply refused to pay him for six months of counseling because "we can't pay for no service."