drill it into them.....

[ryouiki]

what are you counting as a 'youthful indiscretion'? cruising the local Sonic isn't what I was talking about. I was talking about things that impact your entire life. And NO there is nothing in my youth that qualifies. My parents raised us to understand that there were just certain things that simply didn't "go away". That along with the fact that I have always tried to live to honor my parents and G-d, well, it's kept me out of trouble. maybe I'm boring.

Welp, I suppose that is a matter of perspective...

Getting some people together, packing up the camping gear, going out into the woods to build a camp fire, and knock back a few beers as teenagers? On the off chance a cop did show up, he'd probably just pull up a seat and hang out for awhile. Now-a-days? Probably end up with a Class C misdemeanor for underage drinking along with who knows what else.

Course, the same applies for alot of things... sometimes people had disagreements, and sometimes those came to a few punches, which ended up with someone walking away with hurt pride, or a bloody nose. Now their parents would press charges, then turn around and sue the school or some other nonsense.

Funny thing is, I grew up a generation or two later then some of the posters here, but it was fairly rural, and still somewhat on a "good-ole-boy" system. People still had guns in the gun racks on their trucks, and really didn't think much about it. It is fun seeing someone say "cruising the sonic" though... that was still a thing in my time, and I nobody in my age range seems to know what the heck I'm talking about.

[The Annoyed Man]

People aren't ashamed of themselves anymore when they ought to be.

That there is, I think, the single biggest change in the culture over the past 50 years: the disappearance of shame as a behavioral damper. In fact, there are generations of worthless people who boast on Facebook and YouTube about things that someone in my generation would have died if it had been found out.

[SewTexas]

People aren't ashamed of themselves anymore when they ought to be.

That there is, I think, the single biggest change in the culture over the past 50 years: the disappearance of shame as a behavioral damper. In fact, there are generations of worthless people who boast on Facebook and YouTube about things that someone in my generation would have died if it had been found out.

there are kids with a sense of shame, but you have to look for them....you have to look in the churches, in the Homeschool groups, possibly in the private schools. I'm not sure when it disappeared I turn 48 in a few days, but I grew up in the military, spent High School in Flour Bluff Texas (wasn't Corpus Christi back then). When you grow up in the Navy, everything reflects back on your dad, you have to be good....and well, Flour Bluff was so small if I picked up the wrong kind of bread at the HEB, Mom knew about it by the time I got home. But there are fewer small towns now.

[gemini]

When I was in Junior H.S. and H.S., when I went to a party, a movie, on a date, out with friends etc. My Dad would simply
say, "remember who you are". Compound Meaning: 1. behave 2. don't disgrace yourself or your family .
In Elementary school, if I got a whipping at school....I got another when I got home. My Mom was a stay at home mom.
My Dad was a product of the great depression, a WWII vet that served in the Army Air Corp. Both have passed away, but
they instilled Christian values. I miss them both. As well as being my loved parents, they were my best friends.

The following is part of an email that arrived this morning. I think it applies to this thread. I didn't write it, but, I agree.

How did this get started?...
-----------------
Let's see,
I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained
she didn't want any prayer in our schools.
And we said, OK..
------------------
Then ,
someone said you better not read the Bible in school,
the Bible that says
"thou shalt! not kill,
thou shalt not steal,
and love your neighbors as yourself,"
And we said, OK...
-----------------
Dr. Benjamin Spock said
we shouldn't spank our children
when they misbehaved
because their little personalities
would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem.
And we said,
an expert should know what he's talking about
so we won't spank them anymore..
------------------
Then someone said
teachers and principals better not
discipline our children when they misbehave.
And the school administrators said
no faculty member in this school
better touch a student when they misbehave
because we don't want any bad publicity,
and we surely don't want to be sued.
And we accepted their reasoning...
------------------
Then someone said,
let's let our daughters have abortions if they want,
and they won't even have to tell their parents.
And we said, that's a grand idea...
------------------
Then some wise school board member said,
since boys will be boys
and they're going to do it anyway,
let's give our sons all the condoms they want,
so they can have all the fun they desire,
and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school.
And we said, that's another great idea...
------------------
Then some of our top elected officials said
it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs.
And we said,
it doesn't matter what anybody,
including the President,
does in private as long as we have jobs and the economy is good....
------------------
And someone else took that appreciation a step further
and published pictures of nude children
and then stepped further still by
making them available on the Internet.
And we said, everyone's entitled to free speech....
------------------
And the entertainment industry said,
let's make TV shows and movies that promote
profanity, violence and illicit sex...
And let's record music that encourages
rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes...
And we said,
it's just entertainment
and it has no adverse effect
and nobody takes it seriously anyway,
so go right ahead.
------------------
Now we're asking ourselves
why our children have no conscience,
why they don't know right from wrong,
! and why it doesn't bother them to
kill strangers, classmates or even themselves.
------------------
Undoubtedly,
if we thought about it long and hard enough,
we could figure it out.
I'm sure it has a great deal to do with...
"WE REAP WHAT WE SOW,"

I wish everyone here a Happy New Year!

[Middle Age Russ]

America has joined the kinder, gentler, fairer global community. As such, we as a society no longer are bound by outdated concepts like nuclear family, individual responsibility, a strong work ethic, and belief in something (anything) greater than ourselves. Our illustrious POTUS has not transformed the USA, he has simply helped us take a few more steps in this "forward" direction. The transformation has been a slow, constant pressure for a century now, primarily through the education system challenging all mores/beliefs with media support celebrating mediocrity, "fairness", sensationalism and outlandish behaviour.

The Declaration and Constitution were written as cornerstones upon which to base self government of an industrious, moral populace. Since we no longer have need for or value industry and mores, these documents are now obsolete and should also be discarded according to the prevalent group-think.

This is the environment we live in, and it will take a sea-change to re-instill mores/ethics/beliefs enough in society as a whole so that shame can again become a reliable driver for most individual's behaviour. I firmly believe that things will have to get much worse in this country (more rights being trampled, more rioting in the streets, economic collapse -- can anyone say Greece with me?) before society begins to swing back to something resembling a populace capable of effective self-determination and self-government. We are a far cry away from these right now as we enter the new year.

For this new year, I resolve to:
- Love the Lord, my God, with all my heart, mind and soul and pray fervently for our country.
- Love my wife and family with all my heart, mind and soul.
- Teach/Guide my children in the way they should go and support everyone else of like mind.
- Celebrate and be thankful for the great many blessings I have.
- Cling to my God, Guns and Goods, in full recognition of the God-given inalienable rights recognized specifically in our Constitution's Bill of Rights.
- Avail myself of any opportunities to support the re-transformation of this land to the shining beacon it was before the impact of the liberal/progressive/statist scourge.

[VMI77]

This is the environment we live in, and it will take a sea-change to re-instill mores/ethics/beliefs enough in society as a whole so that shame can again become a reliable driver for most individual's behaviour. I firmly believe that things will have to get much worse in this country (more rights being trampled, more rioting in the streets, economic collapse -- can anyone say Greece with me?) before society begins to swing back to something resembling a populace capable of effective self-determination and self-government. We are a far cry away from these right now as we enter the new year.

That sea change is coming.....and to quote Rage Against the Machine....how long? Not long, for what you reap is what you sow. My guess is anytime in the next 10 years.

[Abraham]

There's a quote by one of the ancient Greek philosophers that I'll poorly paraphrase: The youth of today have no respect for their elders. They constantly misbehave...blah, blah, blah. The quote is timeless.

As we age, humans tend to think today's youth is worse than in their day. It's natural to think that way. It's also inaccurate...it's about the same.

Youth tends to misbehave in a contemporary manner - thus disguised from what we experienced in our youth. In our youth, kids misbehaved in ways we were familiar with.

The thing that rankle's me is adult misbehavior/selfishness being more obnoxious.

Ever listen to some dolt in a public place, like a bank, movie, restaurant or grocery store, loudly talking on a cell phone, while standing close to you oblivious of your discomfort?

Worse, you ask them to pipe down (ok, I actually have done so politely, wishing I could be as rude as them and demand they PIPE down, but sigh, I don't, I remain polite) and in turn they get self righteously indignant at my outrageous request.

As for past indiscretions haunting them...? - if they don't have enough sense to know their past will remain with them, having been warned (and most have in my experience) that's just the way the world works.

Listen now and behave (or at least don't get caught) or pay for it later.

My 1 1/2 cents...

[JALLEN]

There's a quote by one of the ancient Greek philosophers that I'll poorly paraphrase: The youth of today have no respect for their elders. They constantly misbehave...blah, blah, blah. The quote is timeless.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

True story. I have been acquainted professionally with an Egyptian fellow, a professor now who was a general in the Egyptian Army a long time ago. He grew up in the shadow of the Pyramids. He told me about a letter to the editor that was published in Cairo that drew more responses than any in the history of the paper. The writer complained about today's youth, how they were lazy, disrespectful, filthy, immoral, unambitious, rude, devoted solely to their own frivolities, etc. The editor ran replies for several weeks before revealing that the letter had come from ancient tablets recently uncovered at a dig, and deciphered, dated about 4,000 years ago.

[SewTexas]

As for past indiscretions haunting them...? - if they don't have enough sense to know their past will remain with them, having been warned (and most have in my experience) that's just the way the world works.

My 1 1/2 cents...

This is the thing....When I was teaching a little "do nothing" homeschool class, it was based around CSI stuff. We got off on a tangent one day, talking about criminal records, I explained all of this to them....these were good kids, but several of them had never been TAUGHT it. How are they to KNOW if they aren't TOLD. Many kids, like some of my students believe that anything they do will magically disappear when they are 21 I was standing up there telling them "Ummm, No! You do something stupid you might not get into the military like you want. You might not get that college scholarship you need to get. You might not get a chl....ever! You might not get a security clearance, ever!" and I had a couple of moms working with me, just fist pumping in the back These kids often need to hear it from someone other than mom and dad.

[MadMonkey]

I was lucky enough to make it through the "idiot years" without having any run-ins with the law, aside from the occasional speeding ticket (or expired stickers... it's hard to keep up with the expiration dates for two different stickers on two different cars... for me anyway ). It helped that I was in Citizen's Police Academy and Citizens On Patrol even when I was barely out of my teens... the first time I set foot into a jail I never wanted to be there again, on either side of the bars

Staying on the straight and narrow helps an awful lot. A lot of my friends picked on me for being a straightedge, but it was worth it. The only serious lawbreaking I got into when I was a kid was after The Fast and the Furious came out when I went through a streetracing phase... luckily that ran its course in a few months and I didn't hurt myself or anybody else.

There are guys who work for my company who haven't deployed yet because they're sitting around STILL waiting for security clearances, some for over a year. I got mine in a month.

I've been lucky... well, less luck, more good parenting

[JALLEN]

I've been lucky... well, less luck, more good parenting

Here ya go! Good parenting minimizes these bouts of irresponsibility. Keeping busy helps, too.

It's funny how it works. When my kids were little, they wanted to be age group swimmers. There was a swim team in the area, they tried out and started in. They were at the pool every day, M-F, til late. Meets were weekends, all weekends, it seemed like nearly every weekend. As we progressed in this, I found they had a team for high school kids that swam twice a day, early mornings before school and afternoons. There were 40 or so kids involved, none of them had a "B" in any course. They were ALL "A" students. None of them got into trouble, it was remarkable. Maybe a process of self-selection but I've never forgotten the example. They were too tired to get into trouble!!

My sons swam all through high school, water polo too and it worked! There was an investment of parent time and treasure to be sure! It all worked out OK.

[Oldgringo]

I've been lucky... well, less luck, more good parenting

Here ya go! Good parenting minimizes these bouts of irresponsibility. Keeping busy helps, too.

It's funny how it works. When my kids were little, they wanted to be age group swimmers. There was a swim team in the area, they tried out and started in. They were at the pool every day, M-F, til late. Meets were weekends, all weekends, it seemed like nearly every weekend. As we progressed in this, I found they had a team for high school kids that swam twice a day, early mornings before school and afternoons. There were 40 or so kids involved, none of them had a "B" in any course. They were ALL "A" students. None of them got into trouble, it was remarkable. Maybe a process of self-selection but I've never forgotten the example. They were too tired to get into trouble!!

My sons swam all through high school, water polo too and it worked! There was an investment of parent time and treasure to be sure! It all worked out OK.

Right on, Bro! It starts with, and goes back to, the home life. It's either there or it ain't!

[grumble]

People aren't ashamed of themselves anymore when they ought to be.

That there is, I think, the single biggest change in the culture over the past 50 years: the disappearance of shame as a behavioral damper. In fact, there are generations of worthless people who boast on Facebook and YouTube about things that someone in my generation would have died if it had been found out.

It doesn't get anymore "real" than this

These words of wisdom should be spread - both the original AND the response.