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I have to admit I have seen it a lot both ways. I lived in a crack house for a time when I couldn't afford anywhere else( wasn't doing drugs) and saw 3 year olds wreathed in fumes as their parents and their parents friends partied around them. One family there I felt sorry for was always telling me how social services were against them. I was trying to help them out by giving them money, up to the point their 6 year old said all their money went to drugs.
My cousin told me stories of cases he handled where pre teen children were prostituted by their parents for 2 dollars a session, or were continually beaten sensless, hung on hooks and burned with cigarettes, or deprived of food for days at a time and the courts would do nothing.
I have also seen it where a kid couldn't fart without the parents rushing them to a doctor or be out past 6 on a school night.
The question is in finding the right balance and striking a correct standard according to the circumstance.

 daedalus wrote:

 Haight wrote:

 von Hohenstein wrote:
I will be a dad soon. And I will make sure my kid it able to walk 1-2 miles through the city alone.
I want to parent my kids to be self dependent and responsible people not spoiled, dependent cowards.

Thank god I live in Germany, where I am allowed to do so.


The more I learn about the USA on Dakka the more I am shocked.

... Well. At least we agree on one thing.

Thank god you live in Germany.


-- Haight

Damn straight. We can race to the bottom on our own, thank you very much. Jingoistic bravado!

(Psst, hey, you got room for one more in Germany?)

Who was engaging in Jingoism ? Or Bravado ? I engaged in a bit of word play sparring with someone who just managed to make a broad brush insult of minor scope (what he's read on Dakka... very good way to judge a nation's character... by reading the off-topic section of a gaming forum. Solid decision making process, that.) to all Americans. There wasn't a hint of "MURICA, feth YEAH" or "DOWN WITH GERMANY, WE WON WWII MOTHER fethers, IN YOUR FACE" in my post.

Also where's your pot shot at Frazzled, who, four posts above my own that you quoted, basically said the same thing ? Or does his level of OT E-Cred make you gunshy about taking the piss out of him?


I think both of your little jousts are reaching for context and purchase.

I for one think the context matters.

If you live in a wonderful happy neighbourhood where kidnappings are about as likely as ... *checks list of Dakkanauts* Frazzled making sense (sorry Frazz!), I don't see much of a problem.

IF you're sending your kid across a wartorn zone though, maybe not.