Read this in the news today:

WATAUGA –
Lori came home to find her daughters fighting that Monday evening. Her 12-year-old had kicked a hole in the door, and the girls were hitting and throwing things at each other. She feared one or both would be seriously hurt.

She called 911 and asked for help. Her 12-year-old daughter was out of
control, she told the call-taker.

“OK. Do you want us to come over to shoot her?” the dispatcher asked,
according to a recording released this week. For five seconds, the line went
dead.

“Are you there?” the call-taker asked.

“Excuse me?” Lori said.

Mike Forbess, a dispatcher of five years for the Watauga Department of Public Safety, then told her he was joking and apologized. But Lori cannot get his comment out of her head.

Read the rest of the article here… Listen to the 911 call here…

Aww, how tragic. Her kids were fighting, she can’t handle being a parent, so she needs the cops to come in. Baloney! Who calls 911 when their kids are having a fit, discipline those brats, lady!

What really bugs me about this is that the 911 operator has such a good reputation, and the only issue they had with him during his entire career as a 911 operator is that he covered someone else’s shift without authorization. Geesh, what a rebel!

Now, enter this high and mighty lady who has obviously failed as a parent. She calls 911 to have the police do the job she failed so miserably at, the dispatcher makes a glib comment, probably to try to ease the situation, and now the lady wants him canned. Now she says she doesn’t trust 911. Sounds like she just wants revenge to me. He made her feel stupid, which she deserved for making a frivolous 911 call, and now it’s payback time.

What really gets me is that employers would even consider firing a tried and true good employee over one minor complaint. This lady’s situation was obviously not life or death, and it’s even debatable that she shouldn’t have been calling 911 in the first place. Her situation ended up fine yet she wants to devastate this guy’s life for a stupid comment. He’s already been punished to the extent he deserves, he gave a very sincere apology and took responsibility for his actions, nothing more should happen to him.

It’s not like this guy was denying her help. I can’t imagine the stupid calls that he gets which waste valuable time that would be better used for real emergencies. I imagine that B.S. really wears on 911 operators after a while. If her call wouldn’t have been so absurd in the first place he wouldn’t have tried to make light of it. A simple reprimand is reasonable, because I would agree that 911 operators should be serious at all times. Yes, it was uncalled for, but he shouldn’t be fired. No way.

This whole thing reminded me of someone I know. Someone I just recently met, but I’ve seen many others like her. She’s your typical young parent of today. Now, I’m not a parent yet, and have all the respect in the world for people who are and recognize how challenging and enormous a responsibility it is. But I know this certain character who drugs up her kids with Ridolin everyday in the morning and sends them to school. Yeah, they were “diagnosed” with ADD. You know, that serious mental illness that plagues the children of America.

She doesn’t let them do anything because she is so concerned that things like music, television, and video games are going to taint them. So she just shelters them from these things along with the rest of real world. What she doesn’t realize is that she is making those things taboo, and when she does that they will want it even more and will be actually more influenced by the bad aspects of things than anyone else. She just can’t figure out why her kids are so unruly. She likes to blame her ex husband. While divorce could certainly be a big part of it, I think that I just covered quite a few other possibilities for what else she’s doing wrong. Another example is she doesn’t even let them watch Disney movies because there is always a villain. And why shouldn’t they know about villains? They are going to have villians in their lives, we all do, and we all have to deal with them. It seems that she is overparenting in some ways, but in other ways isn’t being a very good parent at all. It’s mind boggling.

There are too many parents just like this today – you know, the types who regard ADD as this serious mental illness. Reality check: We all get bored, we all get impatient, we all have tempers sometimes, especially when we’re kids! This brings me to something I’ve wanted to rant about here for a long long time: today’s parenting. Yay, I finally get the chance.

You see, back when my parents were kids, there was no such thing as ADD & ADHD, at least not on any wide scale. In those days, when kids got out of control, their parents simply applied what was known as ADD (Additional Damn Discipline). In general, I would say kids were much more under control back then, not to mention more respectful.

Around the same time, America seemed to be coming unglued. By the mid-to-late 1980’s divorce had become extremely commonplace and those getting married by that time had about a 50/50 chance of making it. Few people seemed concerned about the effects this was having on America’s children. Now look where we are today.

One thing that I know my Grandmother Marson instilled in me as a child was how to be responsible and stable. How to take my responsibilities seriously no matter how depressing or miserable that might be. She taught me how to be faithful and how to be there for my loved ones, come hell and highwater. Every day of my life that she lived, I knew she was there for me. And now I know, if I never did then, how much she loved me and my family. My family certainly isn’t perfect. Far from it. There’s a part of my family I barely speak to. There are problems from the past that I have been avoiding for a long time because I just don’t have the energy for it right now, but I have never stopped loving that part of my family. I still love them just as much as the rest of my family, and some day I do hope to work things out.

I really admire people like my Grandparents, and Lizzie’s Grandparents, and seemingly everyone else from that generation. The majority of them have stuck together after all these years, and they’re happy. That seems to be a rare thing these days, families staying together through thick and thin. Parents dedicating themselves to bringing up their children, putting their own desires on the backburner. Nowadays, there are so many different types of households. Mama’s boyfriends come and go. There are step siblings, step parents, half this half that.. its no wonder so many kids act out and are depressed. How could a kid not be out of control under these circumstances?

And today’s parents seem all too willing to take their kids straight to the doctor who, instead of delving into the possible spiritual/emotional issues plaguing the kid, are ready to jack him up with the latest magical pharmeceutical “remedy.” Some of which, are not even fully tested. It’s so much easier to just medicate junior instead of actually being more of a parent to him and getting down with the tough and needed love. Most kids just need more discipline, responsibilites, affection, and attention – not legalized dope.

Is it any wonder we are seeing more and more kids becoming violent and acting out in ways once thought to be downright demonic? I think not. There is a link. It goes straight to how children are being raised at home. Now add these new medications into the mix, which have been proven to cause extreme mood swings and suicidal behavior. What we have is a recipe for disaster.

People ask me “Why aren’t you married yet? When are the kids going to come along?” Well, I’m taking my time. Even though I turned out to not be a violent psychopath, too often I see the how miserably kids of divorced parents turn out. Also I don’t want my kids to go through the kind of crap I have as a child of bitter divorced parents. I could have went without all of that stress over the years.

I love Elizabeth, very much. We’re living one day at a time right now. Both trying to get our careers started. Once we’re up and going, maybe then we can think about settling down. Yeah, maybe the churches say living together right now isn’t cool, but at least we know we can live with each other, and we won’t be taking quite as big of a gamble if we do decide to settle down some day. We’ve put up with each other for three years. Many marriages don’t last that long. I’m convinced we can do it for many more, but I have to make sure my marriage with my career will work first. Is there anything wrong with that?

Well I don’t think so. See you next time.