why are there so many parents now who don't discipline their kids?

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[b]Maybe you've watched "Supernanny" &/or "Nanny 911", 2 TV series where sensible nannies & a camera crew come visit a family with wild children for a week, & change things so that parents learn how to control their unruly charges? It's one of my favorite things to watch, when I'm tired of news or movies. I am fascinated by the parents in these whacked-out households, who have no clue about the simplest, most common-sense techniques of rearing children to have manners & a sense of responsibility, as well as any knowledge of how to treat one another or even their own parents! They're foul-mouthed, nasty, cruel, lying, violent, manipulative little monsters, & the parents are terrified of giving them any discipline! Thus they have raised piggish little terrors whose company no-one desires, & who, were it not for these strict but clever nannies, would become self-centered teens, & presumably, adults. I know better than to think one must be a "friend" to one's child. Friendly, yes. Loving, yes! But there has to be a line of separation between parent & child, for many reasons. The kids have all the friends they need. Mom & Dad should stick to their most important task in life: being a wise parent, who--unlike a friend--must be able to (for the child's own benefit!) be authoritative, & even, at times, unpopular with their children. (Gasp!) Once I was shopping in a very large grocery store, & I heard some child screaming & crying--from the other side of the building, no less--& he went on having a tantrum (the sound was not one of pain or terror, but anger) for forty-five earsplitting, headache-generating minutes! I could not believe some parent hadn't long since put a stop to it! Eventually my search took me near the checkout registers, where there was a long line of clearly suffering shoppers. Mom & kid were near the back of it. I could almost see thought balloons drawn over the pair's neighbors' heads with "WOULD YOU pleeeeze JUST SHUT UP?!" printed in them. I looked at the mom. She was ignoring the kid, who looked to be around 7, tops. Old enough to know better, at any rate. As she seemed oblivious (or maybe just too embarrassed--or could she be one of those Supernanny candidates?) to our collective misery, & realized, it wasn't she who was in control, but Little Lord Tantrumboy, who at this point didn't even look peeved, let alone angry, but was just screaming shrilly out of habit. There was no expression, just NOISE ON STEROIDS. I believe in addressing the source of a problem, so I spoke. To the kid. I said: "Hey! Kid! What the heck's the matter with you?! Do you know people can hear you clear to the back of this store?" He was shocked into silence. He goggled at me. Mom looked everywhere but at me or the kid. Others looked at the ceiling..or maybe to Heaven.... The silent speech balloons now read, "Oh, THANK you!!!") I continued. "No-one's hurting you--you should be ashamed for creating such a row over nothing! Why don't you calm down, for pete's sake? Can't you see you're embarrassing your mother?? Now be quiet! Cry when you have a good reason to, not just when you're just trying to get your own way!" Lecture finished, I turned & started to leave. One moment later, some hippie-slacker type walking by & growled, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, talking like that to a kid!" I'm not positive, but I think the local victims' thought balloons echoed what I told him to do with his opinion. After that, I was a few steps out of sight down another aisle, on my way to finish my shopping, when I heard the little screamer start to wind up like a siren. I heard this: "WaaaaAA--" "SHHH!" (Quickly & sharply shushed) Silence...blessed silence. "Ahhhhh....." (That last from me, at least) So, do you think I was wrong, doing my intervention? I just felt somebody needed to do something! Maybe I could have been a trifle nicer, but I've never been nice when I have a migraine. What, if anything, would you have said or done?" Maggiepie IMPEACH THE IMPOSTER![/b]