Men are better then women?

Eva
Exactly. I've seen it happen far too many times and I just hate seeing good parents take the blame for children who have made bad choices. Hell, I was no angel when I was a kid, in fact I was quite the handful for my parents, but they were wonderful parents and I did settle down in time. My brother was the quiet good boy, while I raised enough hell for the both of us and then some. It wasn't my parents fault that I was the way I was, it was my fault because I rebelled and did what I wanted to do. No matter what, there was nothing my parents could have done differently to change who I wanted to be at the time. Fortunately, I grew out of my wild ways, but I learned a lot of lessons on my own the hard way. If I knew then what I know now, I would have listened to them and made my life a lot easier, but I was lucky enough to learn from my mistakes. I remember telling my parents that their advice was from the old days and that times have changed and my mothers famous last words were "live and learn"! Well, that's exactly what I did. When you have kids it can go either way even if you're the best parents on earth.

Cav: I imagined George from Seinfeld too! Well-- that would be a neurotic, if not erotic, union.

Wilso, Eva and Montana: I'm entirely with you on this issue. To me, this is not about gender, but rather about waiving the value of a bond that shouldn't be used as a way of earning publicity. It sickens me to think that someone like Britney could be a rôle model; but the whole obsession with celebrity is particularly sad to me. My idea about people's obsession with celebrity is this: they want to badger around others' lives to forget their own transcience. Sadly enough, children- thinking that the way of Britney or Aguilera is the way to go ('why would they be wrong; after all, they never fail to get dates)- are taken along....

The age that I think parents have the least bit of hold on their children is 11 though 16. Those are the years from sixth grade to the end of freshmen year. Those are the years that parenting is the hardest. It is where you see if your job was done right.

I know good parents and I know that there are some things that can't be controled. But to play devils advocate having three kids and one has done badly then maybe they did good by two and not one. And even though that might be the mean way of looking at it it might be the right way. Not everyone can be good all the time correct? A writer cannot write a hit every single time they have to have a bomb, right? Then a parent - even a good one - can have two good children and one bad one and still be to blame because that is their child.

Blame on the parent, to me, is no existant at the age of 11 I might give until 13. But when that time comes it is the child making the disisions. And at that age Adult they should be tried as. Unless they were controled by an older figure.

But there is the example of Adam and Eve. God was a perfect parent and his children still went south.

I agree. The idea of a role model is silly to me, you put someone on a pedastal, and sure enough they do something that is considered to be wrong of judgement, and while it may be --the fact remains to each their own. And for people, because it is easy to pick a part a life that is not their own, to tell them what they should have and should not have done.
Yet their is, an obsession with celebrities and their lives, people want to know, and for young people it's easy to do that, since only one dimension of that life is glamorized.

If a parent want a rôle model, they should offer themselves! The sad thing is all these people who starve themselves, leave school, all in the hope of becoming a star... and never make it. I think that the obsession with celebrities is myopic; but then, celebrities have never interested me.

My thoughts exactly.

what is and what should be
i think we all need to stop complaining about what should be, but instead focus on what is.

the facts.

celebrities are role models for our children today. especially since a lot of the time, parents are away working, or whatever they do.

celebrities, save a few good ones, don't give a rip about our children and are only in it to make money, or sing, or whatever.. it's for themselves and their personal relationships.

celebrities are nothing but heartless rich brats, and they should never be allowed to get away with things by paying their way out. if anything, the law should more strict with them because they ARE role models for our children and when the kids see them raping teenagers and doing drugs, and then GETTING AWAY WITH IT, it doesn't teach anything good to the younger generation.

I think that Britney simply has no talent and is not worth to be talked about.