SUCCUMBING TO THE ALMIGHTY GOD BLOG!
I'm in the mood for a whinge about bad English in blogs, new values, crap in food, ungrateful kids, the Education inequality, the GIMME generation & using the computer as a 'bargaining tool'!
At every opportunity, my kids attack the computer keyboard with passion. What I don't like is their attack on the English language, bastardising whole words into a form of shorthand.
I thought 'blogging' was a way of them increasing their writing skills - instead I find a form of internet text messaging that is fast becoming a type of illiteracy.
Yep, it gets stuck in my craw, or should I say TGMTS! I'll leave that one for you to work it out ... leave suggestions in the comments!
"Get with the program Mum! This is the new millennium!"
Doesn't mean I have to like it! I LIKE the old values. I LIKE food that is slow to prepare. I LOVE getting down the beach box on my own - no kids, nobody but the birds, ants, water & preferrably blue sky or I don't go there ...
I DON'T like all the crap they are putting in our foods. I like foods without additives, making my own bickies (with butter) & organic herb tea. There are enough known chemicals in our lives without having to add those that we can obliterate (like Aspartame .... stayed tuned to my war on Aspartame!)
And don't you find it strange that in this age of medical miracles, that the more medications being invented the more sick people are getting? Anti-biotics have been used to such an extent that Superbugs are taking over. Health has gone full circle back to when people became sick and either recovered or possibly died ... or worse, become a victim of disease. Or possibly build up a tolerance to that infection. There's a thought ...
What about mental illness ... let's just give them yet another tab! Forget that they are working that bloody hard trying to pay for the extra petrol needed to scoot the kids around to the sports and after-school activities. Or maybe the VCE student (students sitting for graduation from high school) is being pressured to do too may subjects in one year - let alone the threat that if they don't get a high ENTER (entrance score that predicts if they will get into the course they want), they won't get into a decent university.
And what is it with MARKING DOWN subjects, because they may seem a bit easier that others? Tell that to a kid with a reading disability or ADHD. Some kids can remember anything, and others take a bit longer but are none-the-less as intelligent.
And don't get me started on our education system that discriminates against intelligent kids who can't read adequately or do basic maths. All because they don't assess low enough. EVERY child should have teachers that are trained well; unfortunately this doesn't happen. Instead the system pushes them through when they are failing, further creating kids with self-esteem problems and feelings of inadequacy.
30 years ago, when I studied towards the equivalent of year 12, called the HSC, there was no pressure on us to go to university, just a comfortable job, maybe in an office - you only expected the very smart to go to uni. And to think I'm in 3rd year of a psychology degree!
What about the GIMME generation? Gimme gimme gimme ... gimme take-way every night ... gimme the latest Play Station ... gimme Globes. Gimme a headache and panic attack while you're at it! Some parents don't realise that 'no' only has 2 letters ... and the consequences of saying yes all the time are far worse than incurring the wrath of their little blighter for a few hours
Now, I can't complain about my kids compared to some other families. I know of Mums who give their kids Maccas whenever they want it - and do tell me how do they do this when they complain about financial difficulties???
It never ceases to amaze me when I see unemployed people walking around with a ciggie at the end of their yellow stained fingers, then buying Charcoal Chicken, picking up a slab of beer and THEN they stop for a play on those stupid, mind-numbing, addictive games where you win a cheap, fluffy toy or a mini, chocolate bar? I swear, you see this at our local Bi-lo shopping centre. Often the kids have no shoes ... but Dad or Mum has a slab ...
Then I get my kids asking "How can Danny afford the latest X Box and we can't?" We choose not to waste out money on high visual content gadgets - the most we have is a PS1 (occasionally used) and a DVD player. Our brains are not made for all the visual assault of video and computer games ... we are breeding a generation of lethargic, unfit & unmotivated kids in normal life.
The kids know my views on things, although it doesn't stop them from working on their Dad. Manipulative little buggers! They do have the 'essential' of the 2000's: a computer. But don't you think that this obsession with MySpace (I sound like such a hypocrit!) is getting a little out of hand? "I want to see if I have been commented ..." What the?? Shouldn't it be "I want to see if anyone has left comments ..."
In my home, the use of the computer is a privilege and not a necessity. They have to earn the right to get on, unless it is for school. That means no MSN messaging, no MySpace ... just checking emails and research for school unless they have done something (eg. homework, something to help us) to earn time on. God help them if I catch them!
Actually, the computer is a useful tool for parents! Ever withdrawn the use of the computer so your teenager has to use BOOKS to research? Blackmail is a parent's tool, just as bribery is ... and anyone that says bribery doesn't work, doesn't have a teenager! And isn't bribery just another name for incentive or reward?
I want things simpler; food that tastes like it should, parents that can come home and eat with their kids & a veggie plot in the back yard. Once this was an idea .. now it is a dream.
...And I want 1999 petrol prices (John Howard ... 3 strikes and you are OUT!). Make that 2001 ... I'm not unreasonable