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Mother Calls 911 to Stop Son Playing Video Game
Angela Mejia had to call the police on her 14-year-old son to get him to stop playing Grand Theft Auto. Police managed to convince the teen that 2:30 am was too late, and there would be plenty of hookers to beat in the morning. Mrs. Mejia said, “Sometimes I want to run away, too. I have support from my church, but I’m alone. I want to help my son, but I can’t find a way.” I guess it is illegal to throw away game consoles in the land of parental irresponsibility where the Meijias live.
Calmly and quietly walk into the room and yank the power plug for the console out of the wall. Continue doing this every time he starts playing the game. Eventually he will get the message -- he can't kill hookers and protect the power source at the same time. (There is also the tactic of pulling out the fuse or flipping the circuit breaker to avoid a direct confrontation.)
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
looks like a young stephen hawking
You don't have teenager kids or even remember being one, do you?
spanking isn't very effective on 14yr-olds. especially if they're big enough to spank you
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I can tell you from my personal experience that spanking is one of the worst things you can do against a child.
In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
Spanking is actually a very effective tool, when used properly.
I completely agree.
A slap in the face is a sharp reminder that you aren't in charge, and you had better rethink your actions.
Umm... I thought we were talking about spanking here... Spanking is not slapping and should never be used. Slapping is a physical assault on a person, even if it does not cause permanent physical damage (though I'm not saying that it couldn't). Slapping people has always been a cornerstone of domestic abuse. Beyond that, it is also ineffective as a teaching aid. Slapping to remind someone that you "aren't in charge" only promotes the idea that for them to be in charge, you have to hit them back. This leads to a cycle of using physical force to assert one's dominance. It is the reason why in the animal kingdom, change of leadership is usually very violent and often deadly... it is a system where dominance is asserting by using physical force.
The former is like getting burned by a hot surface -- it's an instant reaction and shouldn't have long-lasting effects beyond the psychological effect (learning not to touch hot surfaces); the latter is like teaching the same lesson by lighting one's clothes on fire -- it _will_ have long-lasting painful effects and is not any more effective at teaching the lesson (learning not to touch hot surfaces)
Depending on what you meant, I'm going to have to disagree again. Spanking should never be used as an instant reaction. By using it as an instant reaction, it allows anger, frustration and all of the bad reasons to take precedent over. It should only be used when necessary, and when it is explained to the child why this is happening.
I for one always dislike it when parents spank their children out of frustration. This happens often in stores when children as misbehaving, a parent will give their child a smack on the bottom. This is usually followed by a "Stop that" or "Cut it out". In turn, the child usually just ends up crying. Yes, the spank itself did very little physical harm, but what is more is that the child is punished and most likely has no clue why. Thus the child has learned nothing except that their parents are going to inflict minor physical pain when they are angry and frustrated.
I just installed a couple timers (similar to those people use at this time of year to set their Christmas lights so they don't run all throughout the day) on the circuits connected to the television and such. God I love being an engineer (Bio + computer). If the kid decides to take his gaming system to the TV upstairs, I cut it off too. If he gets in the habit of popping open the circuit breaker box, I'll cut the wall right open (learned a lot on electrical and upgrading the house from my father as a kid) and install a local power timer I can control via IP. Done. To be honest, the kids usually make a point of finishing up with their games at least a half hour before the timer kicks in, because: a) Half the games they play require at least an hour to complete missions before reaching save points b) Despite having surge protectors in place, they think that if the power goes off while the Wii is running, it will fry the Wii. Yeah, not the more dastardly blackhat trick ever, but effective. Also, don't let the kid have a TV in their room, it just makes this nonsense more common. While I personally don't care that a 14-year old is up at 2:30am on a SATURDAY playing games, I think the lady is just plain dumb for calling the cops over this. Another waste of resources, plain and simple. A similar issue happened with a family friend up the street, the kid was playing WoW until 5am, getting up at 7am to play again, being late for classes, etc (NO COPS THOUGH). A simple call to me, and the router now cuts off internet access between 8pm and 7am. Want to pull the router out of the equation and be a smart-ass, coupling the cable modem directly to your own PC? No go - the adults are the only ones with the passwords to register a new mac address for the internet account, so that just won't work. Reset the router with a pin? Nope, lovely custom linux firmware, retains the settings in EEPROM. There are always effective ways to deal with this. It's sad that we must rely on them though, as there is no substitute for doing a parent's job - parenting. I can't remember the last time the measures I put in place were actually needed, and I'm proud of that.
... if she HAD discarded or hidden the game system? By the time I was 14, I was bigger than my mom; by the time my son was, he was bigger than his mom. As others have noted, the time to instill a balance between independence and control/discipline/whatever is when kids are smaller. Also as noted, I just hope all the readers who don't have kids yet realize that (a) maybe their parents had a point, and (b) all the things you swore you'd never do with your kids look a lot different from the other side.
I'm not sure why all the anti-violence posts are modded down, but here's another one.
As someone who has their own child and has been a foster carer for children who are much more challenging than anything most of you could imagine, I can say that I have never hit a child. NEVER. Hitting a child or even shouting at a child is a sign to that child that you have lost control. In the short term you may instill fear, but eventually that will be overcome and your problems are multiplied. There are many many many non-violent way to influence a childs behaviour.
In the UK hitting your child is assault. You can use 'reasonable chastisement' as a defense against that assault, and the police may choose not to persue the assault or the judge/jury may acquit you on that basis, but that doesn't mean it isn't assault to strike a child. I expect this will change in the next decade. There is never a reasonable form of assault.
My child is very well behaved. He has very solid boundaries and when he crosses them there are consequences to reassert those boundaries. I have never hit him and I never will. The boundaries are enforced by mutual respect and trust, rather than fear that he will receive some form of abuse because I don't have the basic parenting skills required.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
There isn't much difference between "spanking" and "slapping." Getting hit in the butt is the same as getting hit on the face, just less effective. ....
When your child is physically big enough and mentally mature enough to assert dominance by force, then you need new, non-physical discipline tools. Spanking is only for a certain age range where it's effective and doesn't lead to physical fights (see OP -- they mentioned this quite clearly)
To everyone here, there is a lot of difference, as the (GP) pointed out.. I was 14 when my mom decided to slap me. That is when I knew it was time to leave. I would have respected her decision to spank me, but instead she slapped me. If anyone does not believe that there is a difference, why don't you be brave enough to try a little experiment. Allow someone to pop your bottom. Not so bad, was it? Stung a little. Now allow them to slap you. See? A slap in the face is a slap in the face. Slapping someone when they are mad at you only makes things worse. Properly spanking them can perform the (should be) intended action, of informing the child there will be consequences to actions.
You misinterpreted "instant reaction" to mean the parent instantly reacting to the situation with a slap, rather than the situation being instantly over after 1 slap. In the context of burning your finger versus lighting your arm on fire, burning your finger is over in an instant, and hopefully you've learned your lesson with no further action or harm necessary.
And here we have a Coward again trying to reinterpret what he was being said. without dissecting why he is wrong, have you ever known anyone to slap someone other than instantly? It just sends the wrong message. Spanking however, can send the right one. There are many factors, such as age but I bet you that they guy who got caned (Taiwan?) will no longer be trashing sports cars in a foreign country, or otherwise. Do I think it was overboard, perhaps. But it worked. Slapping him in the face, doubtful.
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
You are cowardly. You are inept parents.
You are the coward here. You even go by that name. Inept? Why. because they discipline? You think that because you parents abused you all parents that spank properly do? If this is what you teach your children, then sit you are inept.
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.
I'm not sure why all the anti-violence posts are modded down, but here's another one.
That is easy, they are wrong and have an agenda. They directly insult those who are wiser.
As someone who has their own child and has been a foster carer for children who are much more challenging than anything most of you could imagine, I can say that I have never hit a child. NEVER. Hitting a child or even shouting at a child is a sign to that child that you have lost control.
In general, I would agree, however one could argue the moment a child does anything outside of instruction you have lost control. In the right circumstances, yelling can be good, albeit rarely. I fell the punishment when applicable should illustrate the consequences, even if not fully realized directly to the child. If a child is yelling for instance, and refuses to stop, yelling at them could convince them why it is not good to yell, depending on why the child was yelling. Lets say it was distracting a family member. Allow them to play the video game. They will be confused sure, but as soon as they get to a place where concentration is needed, let them have it. You have shown them courtesy by allowing them to play when they know they are wrong, and often you may find they will actually ask you to stop. Be creative in parenting, but be careful. Reaching for the belt every-time is disastrous.
There is never a reasonable form of assault.
What if the child is in the middle of hitting someone else and that is the only way? You have big fallacies in your arguments.
Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.