Feral children are everywhere

Saw a kid at the zoo banging all up on the glass at a turtle yelling “WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP” and his dad aas doing fuck all. Tried to say “hey buddy maybe we chill” but I don’t really think it got through and he only stopped because of coincidental timing(a parent that shitty would probably get mad at me and I was there to have a good day).

(Note: I did have a good day, the zoo is awesome. We pet rays).

Yoooo, I have two kids who I have never laid a hand on, and they behave extremely well compared to their peers (not perfect by any means, but I am very happy with them). My father beat the shit out of me when I was a kid, and what did that get him? Me hating him until now. I still help him and take care of him, but to be 100% honest, I don't have love for the man. You don't need to beat a little being who has no defense to make them behave, this is just absurd and stupid.

I'm a parent of one child who is the opposite of feral and never gets hit.

And while yes obviously we should not teach our children that physical abuse is how we keep people in line, this conversation needs to go far beyond the level if disciplinary tactics. What's the whole overall parenting strategy?

I submit that actually having a strategy leads to less abuse, and that those who are the quickest to abuse are also the ones who do not take the time to reflect on themselves, their parenting, life, etc. At least not in a way that could potentially make them feel bad or change their ways.

And I'm not even trying to position myself as a perfect parent above physical intervention. Especially when safety is involved. But you have to leave room for escalation. If everything is met with the same reaction of losing your shit, then no bad behaviors seem any worse than others.

I don't know if modern people are truly any worse at parenting than past generations, or if it's yet another example of humanity's shittiness being exposed by our explosion in communications technology.

They aren't. Crime is down. Underage drinking and drug use is down. Less underage pregnancy. More people are completing secondary. Anyone who says kids are worse hasn't looked at the numbers.
- Yeah that's typically how it works. People default to complaining and seeing everything as getting worse all the time.
  I wonder if the "feral child" phenomenon has actually increased though (I don't think there would be stats) and if that has something to do with the lower crime rate.
  Not that it's good to let your child be a feral nuisance. But if a child has shitty parents maybe that's better for their development than whatever abuse the parents would choose to control it.
- How's that relate to feral children though ? Which i take as "badly behaved in public" . It could just be shifting baseline syndrome which is what the meme sortof intimates o.e bad behavior today is accepted but back in the day it wasn't.
  Not suggesting onw way or the other if children are less well behaved pubicially but your refutation seems a staw clutch ?

How about we just say no to the idea of beating kids

If your kid comes home from school saying another kid beat them up ofc you'd be horrified yet some parents are okay with hitting their own kids and it makes no sense

"Those pesky kids need a beating" is a meme several thousands years old

My mom had 4 kids. 3 of us were well behaved in public and she said "I would look at those parents with screaming kids in the store and think I am doing something right, my kids don't do that. So God gave me Janet. I was so judgemental, then I got one who screamed in the store."

Yeah but then I see grown ass adults doing the same shit. And since they're my age they more than likely got beat.

There is essentially universal agreement in the field of child psychology that "beating" your child is the wrong approach.

I've yet to meet a parent that completely ignores their child in a public venue. In many cultures children are considered to be a part of society / community and so they are given some autonomy to discover the world with their peers. Hyper individualistic Western society is really the odd one out here and Western cultures are the only ones where I've seen this take expressed openly. Conclude from that what you will.

A few weeks ago my wife and I were getting breakfast at a local bakery. Inside, a dad had decided that it did not matter that his small child was running around, screaming at the top of his lungs. The little gremlin started trying to steal pastries off other people's tables and dad stiff didn't do anything until the staff announced loudly that all unattended children would be reported to CPS.
That kid didn't need a beating, but that dad sure did.
- Agreed, that's unacceptable.
- Look, with parents you never know what they just went through. Maybe they didn't get any sleep or whatever. A different approach would have been for someone to start playing with the kid
I think many use "beating" as a hyperbole, just like if I said my mom would kill me if I did that. I don't mean she would literally kill me.
Before I go on, could you be more specific on what "western culture" and which "hyper individualistic western society" you are talking about?
Now I've traveled quite a bit all over the world. I've seen parents of all cultures just straight up ignoring their child's awful behavior.
And maybe it's just me seeing these specific tourists the most. The Chineese parents are the biggest offender that I've seen in my travels. Their children do whatever they want and they don't say anything. Just an example from the top of my head, climbing on shelves in a grocery store while the parents just watched.
I have many times seen parents ignoring their child's behaviour in public, pretty much every time I go shopping.
- That's incredible, there may be some regional variation at play here.
I mostly agree except for the initial phase of teaching a kid to listen and control themselves. The part of the brain that forces them to sit still and focus doesn't really develop imo without some fear. I wouldn't at all advocate for beating your child, but when they are young a little spank sometimes that isn't that bad seems scary as hell to them. It's very effective to get them to learn to listen, to stop running around, that sort of thing. After you get past that point you can talk to them, it's much easier. Also you have to talk to them afterwards so they know you aren't being mean, but need them to learn to control themselves and not let their emotions take over all the time. If you do it well, you won't have to do it but a few times. Not intensity, but as little as possible, just so they know that they can't get away with it. A kid has almost unlimited energy to fight and yell. It's not good for you, and it's not good for them. It's not really normal for an animal to never have any fear. The brain isn't supposed to work that way. Yet also it's not good to abuse them obviously. Some people are kind of bad parents and they will use that as an excuse to avoid doing what they should for their kids, like cooking healthy food and stuff. When kids arent eating well or are trapped inside all day they also get restless. That is not the time to be spanking. The one time where spanking is appropriate is simply to make them realize that they can't just ignore you and walk on you, and that they have to actually talk with you when you are serious. Talking is the part where they learn. They should just learn fear. This will make them depressive and lazy and resentful and psychotic.
- There is not a single ounce of anything scientific provable in what you are saying. You are making shit up to justify hitting your children. That's really it.
  I mostly agree except for the initial phase of teaching a kid to listen and control themselves.
  When would that be? It is a learning process for children to control themselves. Some grown ups haven't mastered it.
  The part of the brain that forces them to sit still and focus doesn't really develop imo without some fear.
  This is the core piece of your little theory, right? I challenge you to give me any reputable source, be it from a psychological or pedagogical paper. Just one. To the best of my knowledge, not a single developmental theory backs this up.
  I wouldn't at all advocate for beating your child, but when they are young a little spank sometimes that isn't that bad seems scary as hell to them.
  In other words, you are advocating for beating children. You have no idea how "a little spank" feels for your child. If they are scared about it afterwards it's a little bit hypocritical to assume that it was not "that bad".
  It's very effective to get them to learn to listen, to stop running around, that sort of thing. After you get past that point you can talk to them, it's much easier.
  "My child was running around and wouldn't listen, so i spanked it." Are you sure there are no other avenues available to get your child to listen?
  Also you have to talk to them afterwards so they know you aren't being mean
  You just beat a person that has no way of protectong themselves against somebody much stronger and that they rely on for savty and security. That is mean. Even if you managed to convonce yourself that it's not. It realy is.
  but need them to learn to control themselves and not let their emotions take over all the time.
  THEY ARE CHILDREN! Children have to learn to controll emotions. It's part of growing up. The way to support them is to help them undersuand their emotions and giving them tools to deal with them. Don't expect it to work imedeatly, it's a process. Spanking them will teach them to suppress and bottle their emotion, because the single person they rely on for safety is hitting them if they don't. You are not teaching your children to deal with emotions in a healty manor.
- This is an area with a ton of debate and I appreciate your insights. I was on the receiving end of corporal punishment growing up and have chosen not continue that cycle. That doesn't mean that my child will grow up without consequences, which is I think what most posters are frustrated with here.
  According to the World Health Organization:
  Evidence shows corporal punishment harms children’s physical and mental health, increases behavioural problems over time, and has no positive outcomes.
  All corporal punishment, however mild or light, carries an inbuilt risk of escalation. Studies suggest that parents who used corporal punishment are at heightened risk of perpetrating severe maltreatment
  Corporal punishment is linked to a range of negative outcomes for children across countries and cultures, including physical and mental ill-health, impaired cognitive and socio-emotional development, poor educational outcomes, increased aggression and perpetration of violence.
  There is also evidence that fear based parenting can lead to anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and poor self-esteem and sows mistrust and emotional distance between parent and child. I can personally attest to experiencing quite a few of these in relation to corporal punishment.
  Now it sounds like you are using fear judiciously and to each their own. But I am determined to find another way, while also making consequences as clear as possible. Age 1 to 3 is difficult for everyone since the child is mobile and exploratory but has very little reasoning capabilities.

Can we please leave TikTok face on TikTok? I come here specifically to escape the brain rot.

boy are you in the wrong place
- I’m talking about a specific level of brain rot mind you, I can accept the lower level that is typical of Lemmy meme communities but not quite corporate social network levels.
🤣 it's amazing how you people actually think you are better.
- Than TikTok? Sure we are. It's an incredibly low bar. Most everything is better than TikTok.
- "you people"

My 11-month old is an absolute saint when we're out and about, then a horrifying tornado of destruction when he's at home. I suspect a lot of it is just boredom, but its hard to tell because... 11-mo olds aren't great at verbalizing their discontent.

As he gets older and he starts losing that starstruck look of wonderment at the mall or a new restaurant or wherever, I suspect he'll be harder to control. But he's also incredibly clever, athletic, and curious. I don't want to discourage any of this just to make parenting a bit easier in the short term.

Can't fucking imagine actually hitting him. I know what that did to me after the rare few times my mom did it. I still can't bring myself to forgive her 30 years later. And there's no way I want my son thinking of me that way.

They're experiencing restraint collapse.
You're doing a great job parenting! It's one of the most difficult jobs in the world to do well. Restraint collapse is a great indicator that you're doing well. It's also hell because you take everything on. Thank you for parenting well.

I see a lot of objectionable behavior out in public. A lot of it is from children. But most of it is not. If I'm thinking through my 10 worst flight experiences, or subway experiences, or coffee shop experiences, none of them involve children. Children are mostly a mild annoyance (and I say this as someone who mostly doesn't like other people's kids), but mostly harmless.

So the reaction of singling out the children for immediate correction, through physical force and violence, seems to be selectively targeted, and makes me suspect it's just people who just don't like children. Unless these same people say that a person holding up the line, playing music too loud on the subway, getting too close in your personal space, throwing trash on the ground, catcalling women, using slurs in public, etc., all deserve to be beaten, too.

And for people in the thread who are saying stuff like "oh yeah you shouldn't beat your kids, but you should keep those children out of public places," it also calls to mind the way some people talk about the homeless or the disabled, like they're ruining your good time by simply existing within your vicinity.

We're all just trying to coexist. Being in public, in a place open and accessible to everyone else, is inherently going to involve compromise, where we're not able to exclude others (the deal that comes with them not being able to exclude you). You can't let other people aggravate you enough to, like, post a TikTok about it (which I also consider to be objectionable behavior).

The kind of attitude you are talking about here is btw called adultism, which is a selective bias against children.

The answer isn't to beat your kids though. I just think the current generation is taking the good advice to not hit your kids and is too impatient (or doesn't have enough time) to actually raise kids that aren't screaming all the damn time.

The whole “don’t say ‘no’ to your child“ …we’re gonna have a whole generation who won’t understand what nonconsent is. In a literal way too.
I do not understand these people who think boundaries break others. It’s massively flawed and problematic to train humans like this. It’s sabotaging their kids into being abusers and thinking they are above being kind.
We all have choices to be assholes. To be an asshole is a choice. Don’t make it their only option.
- I can't understand how such an obviously stupid approach to rasing kids even got off the ground to the point of general awareness. Any intelligent adult should be able to see how learning to take a "no" is an essential part of growing up. Same with dealing with negative emotions in general, which I understand the whole "never say no" thing is trying to avoid.
  My daughter was taught how to take a no at a young age. It was a bit rough the first few times, but she quickly learned to take them in stride.
- I have come to understand that the whole "don't say no" thing is less about directly saying no and leaving it at that and more about taking the time to explain things to your child.
  When it comes to new situations for things that I haven't yet encountered I don't just say no. I sit down with them and explain to them why.
  Yes there are times when I will just say no, like when they know what the answer is going to be and understand why but are just doing it to do it, or if there isn't time in that specific moment to explain I would preface it with that and then explain it later.
  I think people misinterpret the whole don't say no thing sometimes and literally just give their kids whatever they want which is obviously not good. Boundaries are not optional, and like you mention it is a flawed way of thinking and will absolutely lead to problems down the road.
Try telling your kids not to scream.
... and watch them screaming even more just to annoy you.
- It's so fucking insane to me that the majority of Americans think beating your kids is acceptable and even healthy
- /woosh
  Kids don't "scream JUST to annoy you". If you think that you might be the parent people are complaining about.
  Kids are gonna be kids sometimes mate. But they are people not. They aren't doing something "just to annoy you". They have reasons they act the way they do. And it's always because of who raised them.
  My point was about actually being a parent and being able to raise a child with mutual respect. It's obviously not just "stop screaming".
  The biggest thing is teaching your child that screaming does not get them positive results. Lots of parents have a really hard time transitioning from raising an infant, to raising a toddler, to raising a kid.
  By the time they are a teenager they are still whining like an infant to get what they want.
  I heard a kid screaming in public a couple weeks ago. I swear to God it sounded like a toddler having a tantrum. I look over and it's literally a kid at least 10 years old. It blew my mind. The parents where treating him like an infant trying to find out what he wanted.
Well, neither is true, though. Newer generations don't just magically have less patience. Nor children today are more prone to tantrums and screaming than children in the past 30 million years. That's just good old, "back in my days", backwards thinking that has, ironically, also always existed amongst the older generations.
It's a song and dance, driven by evolution, it has happened before and it will continue to happen. As this thread and hundreds of threads, and newspaper articles, and postcards, and letters, and books, and clay tablets and campfire rants have proven, ever since humans developed speech.
Kids these days.
- The internet has drastically and measurably changed the behavior and attention span of children.

I don't hit my kids, I barely even yell. They're the most well-behaved kids I know. Almost as though respecting your kids and spending time with them makes them happier? And maybe kids that feel respected act better? It's a parenting problem. Youth are the future, we the parents decide what that future looks like.

It's boundaries, expectations and consistancy in consequences if they break the rules.
Yes, teaching kids to behave is far more effective than beating them into compliance. Sure, they have difficulty grasping it in their early years, but with repetition it eventually sinks in like all of the other things we teach them.

Being a parent is hard af

Doesn't help that people judge 2 year old parents when their child is crying. Not like they could hold a debate with someone who can not comprehend the concept of self control.
- 2 year olds should really not be parents.
- No, but you can remove them from the venue if it doesn't stop crying, unless you're on a plane.
- People also don't get how different children are and how much neuro diversity is out there. Comments below say to remove the child from the venue or keep them at home. It's been years and I've hardly left the house for social enjoyment. My kid finally gets excited about going to the cinema, so we go,and he ends up having difficulty regulating himself there......I guess I better scoop him up and fuck off back to the cave we crawled out of.
  Managing children is difficult, and if a child is dedicated to their course of action, then you can't win. You can never win a battle of wills against a young child. A child has infinite energy, infinite time and a single minded focus. They've got nowhere else to be nothing better to do.
- For real, clearly they never had to explain to a 4 year old why they could not run around with crayons stuffed in their nose.
Being a good one is.
- I would argue that being a bad one even has its challenges.
- even being a bad parent can be very tough
I understand but also not my problem? If you are too tired to deal with your children maybe keep them at home. If you are going to bring a child to a public place you got to be prepare and willing to educate them. Your children are special bundles of joy for You, and you only. People are not ok in having to deal with an unhinged savage child because parenting is hard. People take the "it takes a village" wrong. Not everyone you see is on your village.
- Your children are special bundles of joy for You, and you only.
  Those snotrags are in charge of funding our retirements excuse me!
- Speaking as a parent, you are correct.
- They're mad because you're right and they have to deal with screaming brats all day because they chose to and you didn't.
- Then, politely, fuck off.
  Children are a part of the society that you live in, whether you liked it or not. I don't know who hurt you, but you were also a child once. You pooped your diapers, you cried, you misbehaved. How your parents have treated you when you did these things has a very direct effect on how you behave and think right now. My guess is they were shitty, it would explain your irrational anger and hatred towards kids.
  Misbehaving in public is a necessary step to learning how to behave in the first place. It's a learning by doing thing. You won't get your child prepared to act kind, nice, and considerate with other people if you don't let them meet other people. You cannot teach your kid how to behave on the outside at home. How is that not obvious to you? It is inconvenient, it is annoying, it is hard, and it has to be done so that we don't have underdeveloped, immature, dysregulated asshole adults a generation's time from now.
  Parents are always obligated to watch for their kids and show them how to behave. This doesn't mean they can, or should, control their every move, word, reaction, emotion, or behavior. If a 3 year old cries and it is uncomfortable for you, that's your problem. It is not the child's or the parent's duty to shut them up with a gag ball ffs. It is their duty to help them resolve and guide them through their overwhelming emotions. So that they will grow up to be emotionally healthy adults.
  Children have an innate need to play. They learn via playing. They learn via trying things out and touching them. They learn to walk and run by walking and running - and falling and failing. They also learn about the world from the world's reaction. Being met with disdain for solely existing and breathing won't help them to grow up to be adults with a lot of self worth.
  You don't get to decide who is part of the society and village you live in. You don't get to cherry pick your neighbors.
  You don't want kids in your village go live in a cave.
- Hahahahahaha
It's weird that it's completely necessary for every single person to make that choice! Also, the kind of people that actually parent and don't just unleash their loud, hyperactive child on strangers don't get memes made about them.
Source: I was a loud, hyperactive child, but I was taught respect, consideration, and made to follow rules.
- Tell me you're not a parent without telling me you're not a parent....
Right. Maybe that's why you have mad social anxiety and the like. Because your parents beat your ass for even talking when out in public.
If every single one of your ancestors did something and so did everyone else’s on a planet of 8 billion, the thing is not that hard.
And entirely voluntary.
You've riled the forever alone nerds.

I don't mind rambunctious children, as long as they aren't hurting anyone, doing ear piercing screaming, or doing something that spreads disease. (Like putting their hands directly into ice cream topping trays instead of using the fucking scoop)

Frequently I see parents be way overly harsh with their kids where I'm at like the parent is terrified of being seen as a bad/lazy parent so they take it out on their kid by way over reacting to a kid doing something disruptive but ultimately pretty harmless.

There are occasional situations where the parent just dumbly stands there doing nothing to stop their kid doing something they really shouldn't (like that Ice Cream Topping example... which is a thing I recently witnessed). But that's less common than the former. Might be because I live in a rural conservative hellhole where kids are seen as their parent's property.

My kids are respectful but they’re kids and I have an autistic 4 year old who is so cute and cuddly but he has the energy of a thousand suns, one time he was skipping around, hopping over cracks in the sidewalk and being happy and laughing loud, we go to a store and hes asking me a million questions and laughing and talking loud while being energetic and hopping. this one old Karen tells me I need to keep him quieter and calm, because he is disturbing others by laughing and being a kid. Without skipping a beat i said “well good thing hes a kid, the world belongs to the kids, not miserable Old people who are gonna die any day now” She had that look that if she were wearing a monocle it would have popped out.
I'm definitely the kind of adult who applies a disproportionately large punishment for small public disruptive behavior from kids I'm watching. It sucks because I know I'm going to far but I'm also so scared of the other adults in the room that I don't know how else to react. It sucks.
- What exactly are you afraid of them doing?

ITT people taking issue with parenting methods not even being advocated for. If you take your children to public places, of course everyone knows they are children, but they still shouldn't be pulling stuff off racks, running around screaming and licking the windows, or putting hands on other people or children.

You don't have to yell at them or beat them or anything else, but if they can't pull themselves together in public then work on it and consider not bringing them to such places. My mom made us all repeat the rules before we left the car (no running, no putting things in the cart without being asked, keep one hand on the cart while we are moving or something like those) and if we didn't follow the rules we all went back to the car. Simple as that.

Edit: sometimes you gotta go do something and take the kids. If they're acting feral at least maybe don't be the parent who looks like they are totally cool with it and just pretend it isn't happening?

My mom made us all repeat the rules before we left the car (no running, no putting things in the cart without being asked, keep one hand on the cart while we are moving or something like those)
Wow, I'd forgotten this till just now - my mother did the same. Thanks for the memory jog!
I can remember being 2 or 3 years old and the golden rule then was to always be holding someone's hand - parent/sibling, etc.

I swear, Americans are obsessed with the idea that kids need a beating once in a while. That would get you arrested where I am from.

I've had this discussion countless times on reddit, and every time some American comes up with a bunch of arguments that essentially boil down to "well my dad hit me and it stopped me from misbehaving, so I shall continue this tradition".
Meanwhile it's one of the most violent western societies. I wonder why. USA has about 6 times more intentional homicides than Denmark, for example.
I think people are jumping to the beating part but ignoring the rest. The thought process usually goes like "wow, my parents would've spanked me for doing that.. but they're not doing anything!"
It's not about the beating. It's about the kid being allowed to do whatever without any action from the parent. Because that's usually how it goes when a kid is being a nuisance.
I need to move there. We have never spanked our kids and they behave no worse than any other kids, and better than many.
Louis C.K. may be a bit of a creep, but one thing he said really resonates with me. Children are the only people we're legally allowed to hit (in the U.S.). They are some of our most vulnerable people and we hit them. They rely on us to protect them, and we hit them. Fuck us for hitting our tiny, vulnerable babies. My wife wasn't totally opposed to spanking before we had kids, but then we had kids and she can't imagine hitting them. She's a wonderful human.
Not just Americans, corporal punishment is still acceptable in mainland China. I remember a teacher used a meter ruler and slapped a kid on the palm of their hands (it was a light slap, but still unacceptable in my opinion), I remember being so scared of it, not sure if I ever got slapped, but if I did, it probably became a suppressed memory since I can't recall it. Parents can beat their kids in public and cops probably wouldn't really do anything since its family matters. Fucking "Filial Piety" bs and all. I didn't get "beaten" but I did get hit when I was younger, and it only stopped because I got too old and I could fight back, and also because we immigrated to the US where it's less tolerated. Skill scolded me every chance she got. My brother also yells at me. Its chaos. Happens at least once a week.
I doubt my depression and anxiety issues will ever be solved.
- My dad was occasionally beaten by his mom and dad in the 1950s and 60s, but his generation decided it was over with, and it also became illegal in the 90s. We're in Denmark.
  Cultural change can and will happen, you'll be the agent of that when you're older 😘 I believe in you!
  I mean, I am not perfect, I also sometimes yell at my kids, but I also say sorry a lot, so... We're only human.

When I was a kid, my parents used to leave me at home with my brother and he would be abusive af. He tied me up ones with zipties. One time, I felt so scared of my brother, I had to run away from home. I'm so used to all this, every time I hear my mother's voice, I feel terrified, its like PTSD-inducing.

Then my mother gets [suprisedpikachuface.jpg] when I have depression. What did you expect, bitch, you caused this.

All I want is enough differentiated "adult only" spaces. I won't say anyone how to raise their kids, just let me be in a space where that parenting is not happening.

Lol, "space where that parenting is not happening" is kinda everywhere!
(Sorry, just read that differently at first, thought it was a humorous take).

It's crazy seeing kids being kids. In the 90's abuse was legal and used, daily. I guess the trade off is life expectancy since we didn't dodge bullets on the daily.

In 1990 violent crime was twice what it is now. It dropped heavily from 91' until 99'.
We just think it is more dangerous now because we can see it every time we reach in our pockets. (And companies make money off making sure we see it.)
- I would say school shootings are higher now than any point in U.S. history. Child abuse is always an issue but kids today are more protected than in the 90s.

Lots of people have procreated that really shouldn't have, unfortunately.

People say that having kids it's hard. It's not. It's literally the easiest thing we can do. Even the most stupid people on the planet can, and do, have kids.
- And everyone else is the asshole for wanting you to control your petulant, loud, germy, and annoying little bundle of joy.
- Yes because the most stupid people are people. They should have kids if they want.
[Someone's kid yells]
The internet: "You should be sterile."
- This but unironically. 😌
- Why do we need to have kids? Why do we need to exist? Give a license to a few top 0.0001% high IQ people, everyone else should be sterilized.

It's pretty hard being a dad and wanting to not hit my kids (which I do not) because I know damn well when they're throwing shit and having an absolute exorcist level tantrum over some inconsequential shit I just think "yeah my mum would have smacked my ass and I'd not have done that again" for the eighth time each day..

"Calm it down or you'll lose your tablet time" doesn't have the same immediate corrective effect.

Talk to them. Make them feel dig. Get right in there and help them determine what their emotions are doing and how to regulate them. That'll teach them!!

Gen X, I presume?

Out of curiosity do you mean the age of the person who posted, the person in the image, or something else? I am a Gen X and my children look about the age of the person in the screenshot.
- More the messaging, than the person in the picture...because yeah, they look too young to be Gen X.
  I'm Gen X too, and I'm pretty sure we were the last generation where it was considered "normal" to get beaten in public for behavioral reasons.
Who is the 50-something in this situation?
- It bothers me how Generation X has been stretched out over time. It should be more people in their 60s. Coupland is 63. If you're 55 now you were barely in high school when his book about late 20s-early 30s people came out.
  Intellectually I understand why we gave up on the "Gen Y" stuff once the idea of Millenials surfaced, but I'm in that gradient where during my lifetime I went through waves of being post-Gen X, then a millenial, then all the way back to Gen X, then sorta millenial again once it became OK for millenials to have kids and jobs and be old and stuff.
  Generational designators are bullshit anyway, but if you're in that gap between X and millenials, or between millenials and Gen Z, now going through that exact process, they become annoying bullshit.
- The children

Me watching my only heir reenact Bruegel's Seven Vices: 🤬 (they heed me not)

Me watching the unheeded parents of another demonic recreant: 😌

Shit take

no body is stopping you now

Obviously the solution is to beat them senseless like my parents did, so they can later wonder what they did to deserve that...

Every child i encounter is extremely well behaved

I wish I could say the same for middle aged suburban moms. Fucking miserable people.

"I was abused as a child so I think other children should also be abused" - cringe-ass toktok moron

EDIT: Gotta love being downvoted by damaged people dedicated to continue the cycle of violence

There's a lot of space between "just let them carry on with whatever" and "beat them like I expected to be". Not to mention, "getting my ass beat by my parents" might not mean literally getting beat, but can be a metaphor for any kind of discipline (though I can see how it can fall into the uncanny valley since there were and are parents that would literally beat asses).

What’s with the creepy skin filter?

They take your kids away from you now if they hear you beat them.

If you were beating your kids loud enough for me to hear, I'd hope they'd be taken away, too!

Lemmy: lol my ADHD is so quirky!

Also Lemmy: Children should be seen and not heard.

When you let your kids run wild in a library, there's a problem.
- When this lady makes the face in a public park, it's her problem.

Ohh.. shes talking about Trump.. makes sense.

Ah yes, the obsessed.

Fuck*ss child? President Trump and friends would like to know where you're hanging out.

Ok boomer.

Seriously. How old is the person in this image? 30? Born in 1995, shopping with mom in the store in 2000 at 5 years old and getting beaten? People acting like 2000 is 1965.

E: ITT everyone got beaten.

I'm happy you had a better childhood than most
- That’s not the case, I can assure you. Corporal punishment was doled out in school and at home.
I mean, my parents were definitely using corporal punishment on me in 2005, and atleast in their social circle it was considered normal, expected even to the point that no one batted an eye when it happened in public.
I know kids being beaten well into the 2000s
I was born in 1991. My parents regularly doled out spankings for misbehavior. But they did it in private.

So we are bashing children now are we?

Always were 👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀 kids are idiots and do dumb shit, there's no debate
I agree, that a meme is not the best option, because it's a nuanced thing, but no, you got it wrong or at least you found the worst kind of interpretation for this:
As a child I was heavily beaten for a lot of things like (loud) crying, insisting on stuff or like not agreeing with my father in general. So when I'm out today and I see a child behaving like this (which is, occasionally, typical child behavior and important for their development) I subconsciously already expect something painful to happen. So this is the first negative feeling this triggers in me.
Then the other learned behavior chimes in: anger. How you react to a situation like that is often behavior you learned from your parents. So my father showed me that in this kind of situation it's not only justified but normal to get angry. So my first subconscious reaction is anger, I can't help it.
Then the consciousness and therapy kicks in. I remember it's a child and it needs to be allowed to process things, even this way, no matter if they make me uncomfortable (within boundaries obvs). No one's going to get hurt now and it's not that bad.
The image with the text made me laugh a bit because I think it pretty well depicts the emotional rollercoaster and the energy drain. I still love my niblings to bits and I'm happy, they don't have to feel the same as me now, when they are older.
- Thanks for the eloquent reply. I deliberately worded it like that to possibly help people that would otherwise thoughtlessly spank a child think about it in a different light.
Yes, but mostly their shitty pathetic parents
Always have been. 🧑‍🚀🔫🧑‍🚀