My head on a chopping board, will you cut it off?

Question

I am at my wits end with all these parents who say that their " Little Johnny's" are either ADD or AHADor ADHD, what ever! Every child in America is a "Special Needs" child. The lack of parenting skills is unbelievable. My Little Johnny can't set still in class, what a load!! My Little Johnny can't concentrate. My Father had a fix for that one too. POW, can yeah concentrate now? When I came up a parent would have been embarrased to admit that their child was less than perfect. Now the parents all line up so that there child can ride the"Little Yella Bus" Am I crazy here? Do you agree that the parents just don't want to face up to their responsibilitys and would rather medicate the child? AArrgghhhh, I'm losing my mind here. Tell me, am I wrong in my thinking? I realize that some child are "special needs", and God bless them. But the doctors are lined up with their prescription pads and the Moms are standing line while the children run rampant. What is going to happen when these kids

youronmyfoot, your right, the teachers and principals need their rights back, so do parents who are afraid to discipline their children.

Granny, I agree with most of your statement, but, I don't think you realize how many of these kids are sedated. The numbers are baffeling

It baffels me. If Little Johnny wants something special, suddenly he can concentrate to achieve what he wants, then it's off to the races again

PAD-D, I'm sorry you were not diagnosed as a child. I have plenty of abuse that I could share with you. Like a father who killed my Mother, my Brother, and his Mother. I came from a terribly abusive back ground.
In you defense, once again as I stated in my notes, there are children out there that may have these conditions, and God bless them. But not the whole damn country!!!

Merrybonder, you read exactly what you wanted to read into my post. My intentions were not to degrade any one with a disability.

Answer 1

Money! Money! Money!
In NYC, up until a few years back, you could get a big fat check from social security for your child who was classified as a "Special Education" child. The schools also get more money in their budgets to teach these children who are classified as "un-teachable".
Principals have told all teachers that if a child misbehaves in class they should be referred to the special education for "testing". This happens so often it will scare the Hell out of you.
If a six year old, runs around and climbs on fences in the school yard and makes noise and generally does things that six year olds are supposed to do, every one wants to sedate him or her. Kids are supposed to run around and make noise and cause disruption in contained situations. If parent's would put down the "funny" cigarettes and stop asking kids for their input into adult situations, a lot of this madness would cease.
I have always believed in putting "Foot to behind" when the situation called for it.
Also, all that medication only makes them predisposed to try other forms of drugs as these don't work with the same potency as these children become teens and then adults.

Peace

Answer 2

To a point, I agree with you..parents who do not back the teacher's comments, parents who pay for child's "love," parents who defend their children's actions regardless of what they are...the result of, perhaps, guilt for not parenting???? I used to think that children would survive parents regardless of what...but now I am not so sure. At some point, a child must be taught to be responsible for his own actions, and yet, everywhere I turn, there is no such thing as responsibility...even religions give carte blanche (All can be forgiven)....this is NOT the way towards responsible people..."Sorry," in my book, just doesn't cut it.
I have said before, the current generation will be ruled by a mere 5% of their own, the other 95% will not have the education or qualifications to run companies or country...that is the scariest scenario I can come up with! But, thankfully, even I will not be around to see it (and, in reality, could ANY generation produce anything worse than Bush? ) Perhaps it really doesn't matter in the long run....who knows.

Answer 3

I don't know what happened to you when you were young. I was raised during the fifties and into the first 2 years of the 60s. I had a terrible time in school. The teachers yelled at me on a daily basis. I was just too darn "lazy" and wouldn't do my school work when I should have been. I was told over and over of how lazy and hopeless I was. And asked time and time again, "why couldn't I be as good as the other boys in the class?" I day-dreamed too much, wouldn't apply myself, I seemed to lose interest in things quickly, wouldn't listen to the teacher when she was talking to(or yelling at) me. I seemed to be smart, but had low grades because I couldn't, or wouldn't, finish my assignments. I seemed to be awful shy, but the teachers had to always tell me to be quiet in the class rooms. My father was a loving, caring man, so the teachers often told him of my "laziness" and oft times misbehavior, and he talked to me about it, even scolded me sometimes. Since that didn't seem to help, everyone just assumed that my father had no control over me; I was just a "lazy" spoiled brat with a weak father and no mother. (my mother died when I was 7, but that was a non-issue to everyone) So the best answer, therefore, was just yell and yell at the kid until, hopefully, he'll straighten out and make life easier for everybody.

Oh, by the way that was in the 50s when there was no such thing as ADD or ADHD or whatever. When I read of the symptoms of ADD in children, a big, huge bell rang in my head. That was just a few years ago when I read of those symptoms. That's right, that's what to do with those kids; put a big boot up the butts. Yell at them, yell at them a lot. That will shame them into behaving. That will give them plenty of guilt to carry around for the rest of their lives; kind of as "payback" for all the "trouble" they're causing the poor suffering adults. And if they don't do well in life afterwards, no skin off our noses.

Edit - The problem that I'm trying to point out is that in those days, the 50s, ADD was unheard of. So the solution, then, to "bad" and/or "annoying to adults" behavior was punishment, punishment, punishment and humiliation, humiliation, humiliation. Did it do any good? I grew up believing I was one of the most worthless human beings in existance. I was not a disruptive kid. Yes, I was guilty of goofing off here and there, but I didn't disrupt classes or prevent anyone from getting an education. My worst offense was what would now-a-days be considered ADD. That's what upset the teachers the most. The most disruptive kids were the good kids; the kids the teachers liked most.

Answer 4

http://www.childprotectionreform.org/policy/law.htm

Here you go my friend. We have allowed the government to take control of too many personal matters. The parent's these days are also "walking the chalk line", so to speak. The kids learn early, that they can cry abuse, if their parent (s) (get out of hand) .Some children, by all means need protecting.
Maybe, it stemmed from when we were young and our parent's didn't spare the rod. I don't think any of my generation or the generations before mine, were harmed by discipline. And we certainly "NEVER" went to school and told on our parents.
Our children have more control than they are mature enough to handle. Some parent's seem to chose medication and excuses, over disciplining and possibly being disciplined themselves.
It's sad but true. We have lost some good teachers who were unwilling to deal with this situation.

Answer 5

I agree in some cases. There are too many kids diagnosed with it to say they all just need more discipline. I think it's funny because when I was in school,(I'm 32), teachers could discipline kids more...and no one I knew was on any kind of meds. LOL, I remember one kid in class who wouldn't quit talking, after several warnings. The teacher literally taped his mouth shut for about 5 minutes. He didn't talk out of turn for the rest of the year. No, I'm not saying I think it's ok, although back then everyone did. I just think overall, a lot of people are dropping the ball about today's children. Docs are too quick to give meds, rather than exploring what is really going on with the child.

Answer 6

Yeah, how come we never even knew what AHAD.ADHD,ADD were when we were growing up.
Yes, we got paddled, and we probably deserved it.
Now if you even touch you kid the wrong way, you can get accused of child abuse. How did we all live through it?
Now it is easier to just prescibe a pill to take care of everything, LET'S ALL SUPPORT THE DRUG COMPANY'S
YEAH RIGHT!!!
We had manners, we played outside all day, not sit in front of the TV or computer or playing video games. My brothers used to ride their bikes, play basketball and baseball all day long. We found things to keep us busy, outside. I know I lived with my roller-skates on.
More mothers were home to take care of the kids and times
did not warrent having to have a two income job to survive.
Not saying that we were well off, as we were not. But we made do with what we had. We did without the luxuries of life,
and we are the better for it today.
Todays kids think that they deserve it all, and it should be handed to them on a silver spoon, They don't want to work, or if they do, want to make a a lot more than minimum wage to begin. They think they should be making $60,000 or more right off the bat. They don't want to listen or learn in school,
and you can see that is evident by some of the questions that are posted on Q & A. They don't know how to think on their own, how to find out the answers or even where to look for them. Believe me I am not lumping everybody in to one catagory. There are kids/teens/young adults that have been
bought up right, with good parental authority and they are caring, bright people. I't just the ME generation that makes me ponder how this world is going to survive in the generations to come, as they pay it forward to their next generation who will be raised as they have been.

Answer 7

I have a special needs child -- she is an adult now. I used to go to a support group with the parents of other children. They used to fight NOT to get their kids on medication. It was the teachers who asked for it, to make life easier for them.

Having God Bless special needs children doesn't do it -- they need help and sometimes do need some medication to help them to function.

However, meds should be prescribed by a doctor, not a parent or teacher.

I don't know if you are crazy -- ask your doctor about that.

Answer 8

Funny... we didn't have those diseases when we were kids. How did we get through life without a title?

I think that it eases the parents mind when they know that their kid has some sort of disease to explain they can't read, or why they have too much energy.

I don't think as many parents deal with it with drugs as we may think. Most of the ones I know find special classes to help them out.

It seems like another group to stick people into, like race, religion, politics, etc. It's become kool to be part of some group so you can complain about how short changed you are.

Anyway, that's just my observation... I'm not always right.

Answer 9

I tell the parents they have I.C.E.D. Idiot child excuse disorder. I also offer that the best medicine comes in a five pack, wrapped as either a backhand or a forehand slap. I tell them that thankfully none of my five kids are mental like theirs, and will be fully capable of employing the uncontrollable children to do menial tasks for them while they continue to excel at life, thus ensuring an income for their unruly sprog. I continue to agree that its wise to have their child diagnosed early in order to allow them to ride the short bus with the violent and upredicatable kids.

As far as the prescription pads go, these unruly ******* should be medicated out of all sensibility so my kids can get on with their study undistracted.

First rule of nature: If it's abnormal, kill it and eat it.

Answer 10

I don't understand it either Cheryl. Maybe its something in the drinking water or maybe its all that fast food, genetically-altered hybrid food along with more preservatives. Who knows.

When we were kids, if Johnny was restless, he was just being a boy. Now everything can be taken care of with a pill. More fresh air, exercise, and home-cooked meals may do the trick. Very strange world we live in today.