General Chat

oh owls, such lovely birds.when i was young we used to have a snowy owl that lived in an old shedat the bottom of a neighbours garden,every night after seeing my boyfriend home on the last bus(now my husband)the bloody thing used to fly out of its shed and hover over my head and scare the s---t out of me,snowy owls are big with a huge wing span,and im sure he used to wait for me just to p--s me off.he was always in our lane even when my children were born,but its been yrs since i last saw him.x

Well second of all Suzanne....read all the posts ...not just this thread.....there were many ages not just children......and not one of us knows why any of the children were on the streets.....A good parent , no matter how much she/he tries, may not be able to control what their children do.......what about those already mentioned who are of an age that they may be parents themselves.......come on now.....we just do not know anything about it and therefore cannot condemn parents.....If you or anyone feel that they can......You must be so perfect....Sheesh....come give the rest of us some lessons on how to live.....Even the Home secretary of past days had children who were an embarrassment ....

Come to that....how many of us check up when their child says they are staying over at a friends house?......Maybe once....maybe twice.....maybe a few times.....but then one gets to trust that they are where they say they are..........Years later.....one may find out that they were on a Jolly.....and that may be your perfect little darling.

Then you failed them

I haven't failed anyone deiberately Robin....I just don't think that the usual avenue of blame should be the parents.......By the way....have you never failed anyone?....wow....another perfect person.

oh susan.i have readall the threads have you?first of all like i said the10yr olds should be in bed at 10pm,and im sure yours were.and yes susan i did know where my children were when they were teenagers,some parents are like that" and the older people wemust stresswerethe minority.did you not watch the news?do you not read the papers?young teenagers and primary school children causing havoc in our cities,destroying peoples lives in one way our another,people who have worked thier whole lives just to make things better for themselves ,do they deserve to have their whole lives ruined because parental control has gone out of the window? watch the interview with the mother of a young looter,it says everything thats wrong with this country.x

i think one thing people forget when they talk about knowing or checking where their teenagers are ...is that in the past you actually phoned a landline to establish they were there if they went to a friend's...with mobiles they can say they are somewhere when they're not!

One interview does not make a point....and yes I have read and watched.

We may all have views but that is all they are. none of us were there, none of us know who the parents are or what they have done to try to help their children. these blanket statements without any proof whatsoever are just the usual Gossip or witch hunt statements.....If one doesn't have the proof then one shouldn't make statements against those who may be the nicest people one could meet......armchair criticism is so easy......and your proof is?

Are you absolutely certain that you knew where your children were?......Is anyone absolutely certain they know where their children are?.....It takes more than one phone call....or even two.......our little darlings aren't always where they should be......their fault.....our fault?....or just one of those things that happen for no reason?......Bad parenting?......who knows.....Sleep overs....Lol......are they?.

and my proof is 10yr old kids on the streets looting and throwing stonesat the police.for god sake a 10yr old,if the parents cant control a 10yr old then they have no right to be a parent. where i live we do parenting classes, matbe some of the parents of them thugs need to join. and your views"what proof have you that your views are correct? take care.x

Whatever your criticisms of others, whatever the circumstances, whatever my non knowledge .................. you failed them !

oh god.please tell me why i failed them.
ps i thought you said you were going to bed ages ago?x

But failure is not necessarily a bad thing..... if I 'fail' at something I am giving an example to others of how NOT to do something....so in the end my failure is beneficial.

One cannot learn by success alone.

Depends what you mean by failure. If an individual reaches for the top rung of the ladder and fails, they can still be successful on any one of the other 20 or so rungs. They are more likely to fail If they can't be bothered to even put one foot on the bottom rung.

We can't create a society where everyone is equal because in actual fact no-one on this earth is even born equal. BUT, what we can try to do is to create a culture where everyone (whether born equal or not) can aspire to be better. Sadly, for a lot of our children, their only aspiration is to be on a TV reality show or marry a footballer and find success that way. Often, love not found at home is sought elsewhere with dreadful (and sometimes dangerous) consequences.

I'd rather my children try and fail than not to try at all. When they were growing up, they knew that and they also knew that they had my support in trying to achieve their goals. They still know that.

I don't profess to be the perfect mum but I believe the two most precious things I could give them were my love and my time.

So many parents fall in the trap of trying to buy affection with money or material goods. I've seen parents of small children giving them money to go off and play on the amusements rather than build a sandcastle on the beach, just so they could sit back in their deckchairs swilling beer and wine.

It is only human nature for children to try to push the boundaries, but too many seem to have none set up in the first place. The result of that has been all too visible over the last few days.

And this cuts across all classes.