OK, my bad. I forgot the damned little winkie and smilie guys again.
It wasn't a shot.
But either way - To call it “harsh”. No way. Harsh - My arsh !!
Sure - From all that I’ve seen him post, I’m sure he’s probably a wonderful parent. And - On the plus side – he did mention the “financial burn rate for summer activities”.
But to come out and state that (school) “…for a change, rather than mind-numbing…”, does say something about what his kid did during the summer.
And if it was something he (or the parents) doesn’t approve of, it’s his (their) responsibility to not only make a change, but they’re also responsible for the kid heading to it to begin with.
As for the need to block MTV and have a MySpace account closed:
We’ve found it a whole lot easier to teach them (“guide them in their decisions”) as to what’s mind-numbing (and the all important: What’s not.) at what I’d guess to be an earlier age, then it is to set up “countermeasures” later on. It cuts that “potential” issue way down. As well as the “behind our backs” issue.
Perhaps this could fall into the “dramatizing the contrast” category as well. But maybe that’s a difference between suburb kids and rural kids. They just grow up differently. Most kids (~10 year olds) we know and deal with think MTV and MySpace are mind-numbing (though they don’t use that exact term), and don’t need to have any time allowance for either.
G-Benz: I’m sorry to hear you’re in a position where you do.
Keep up the good work. But – keep in mind too (when you’re thinking things like “our generation”), that kids these days are WAY ahead of where we were at their age. And that every peer issue for them starts WAY sooner.