Last Friday I went to the neighbourhood pub for a well earned drink and a bite to eat to cap off the work week. The entire time I was there, two kids, about five and eight years old, were running around playing, screaming and crying. The older one, a girl, took pleasure in kicking her younger brother’s ass playing video games and loudly taunting him about it. This went on for TWO hours… the entire time I was there.
No one wants to watch or listen to other people’s kids misbehaving. I NEVER would have done anything like that as a kid. My parents had no tolerance for that shit. If my sister or I acted up as those little rotters did last night (we wouldn’t have), we would have been out of there in about three seconds flat. Not only would we get to go home hungry but we would have also been grounded for two weeks. In my day grounded meant whatever enjoyable activity I would have done had I not been grounded would be taken away. TV? Video games? Not a chance. Since eating out was considered a treat, we probably wouldn’t have seen another restaurant for six months after an episode like that.
Today’s kids seem to face no consequences. Why are the parents so gutless? And clueless!? Don’t they know that last night’s episode was totally unacceptable? What kind of adults will these kids become? How can someone function in society if they haven’t learned the rules they’ll need to live by?
Unfortunately this is becoming all too common. Having previously worked in a retail store, I’ve seen many incidents of atrocious parenting. For some reason the parents don’t know that they’re the ones to blame. And so they go looking about for a scapegoat: TV, video games, teachers, the government… The creators of South Park did an excellent parody of this with the Academy Award-nominated song Blame Canada.
There are too many things kids are allowed to get away with these days, and it’s the parents’ fault. Anyone who’d like to become a parent should be required to pass a parenting class before conception. It’s time to take back our public spaces from the worthless parents and their ill-behaved children: we need to institute a licence to procreate.
Oh, and why the fuck are kids allowed in pubs in the first place?
Another Talking Head 
That’s true to the core.
Parenting is essential not only for children but more for parents. Parents don’t want to act too strict with their children, but then how much strictness is optimum.
I agree, you should have a parenting license to have children haha