Parents who refuse to do parenting

[Gurndigarn]

Hell, I was called a Satanist because I played Dungeons and Dragons, but I can't find another game out there that's more educational. It teaches you diplomacy, problem solving, math, history, tact, etc..

Did you ever try Paranoia?

Diplomacy: Learn to intimidate, bootlick, bribe, fast talk, con...
Problem Solving: How to survive when the odds are stacked against you, including hostile bosses, backstabbing coworkers, and random nutjobs. As an added bonus, you learn the machismo creed: most problems can be solved with large quantities of high explosives.
Math: Nothing teaches imaginary numbers quite like the Alpha Complex bureaucracy.
History: Hey, every secret society has its own history! Why learn just one, when you can have hundreds?!
Tact: Uhhhh... never mind.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Did you ever try Paranoia?

Diplomacy: Learn to intimidate, bootlick, bribe, fast talk, con...
Problem Solving: How to survive when the odds are stacked against you, including hostile bosses, backstabbing coworkers, and random nutjobs. As an added bonus, you learn the machismo creed: most problems can be solved with large quantities of high explosives.
Math: Nothing teaches imaginary numbers quite like the Alpha Complex bureaucracy.
History: Hey, every secret society has its own history! Why learn just one, when you can have hundreds?!
Tact: Uhhhh... never mind.

In other words, How To Survive in Today's Workplace

[Gurndigarn]

Did you ever try Paranoia?

Diplomacy: Learn to intimidate, bootlick, bribe, fast talk, con...
Problem Solving: How to survive when the odds are stacked against you, including hostile bosses, backstabbing coworkers, and random nutjobs. As an added
<etc>

In other words, How To Survive in Today's Workplace

But with high explosives and killer robots!

[Mighty Girl]

My other half and I have bitched about this kind of crap forever. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a movie that was clearly not meant for kids, and as we're leaving someone is carrying their sleeping child out. Cause you know.....it's perfectly normal to cheap out on hiring a babysitter and let your 4 year old sit through Kill Bill or Wild Hogs. (The latter wasn't that bad, but it did have a lot of adult humor in it, which I would not let me daughter see for quite a while). And the video games? Forget it. There's no way GTA will enter my house, period. Not negotiable. And my child isn't going to a house where it is permissible. We made the mistake of letting her watch Spongebob Squarepants where the pirate did some "scary" (for her age) stuff and let me tell you- we lost mucho sleep for about a month after that.

(And I smacked my friend who told me that it's a perfectly ok show, she neglected to mention a few important details).

[Bloodsoul]

Bah, Spongebob.. whatever happened to the days of Ren & Stimpy, eh? Of course rewatching the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie reveals some rather adult humour and situations as well; no naughty stuff, just jokes that most children won't understand (although Ralph's use of "damn" was rather repetitive). Closest I can think of now would be the first Pokémon movie (Mewtwo wanting to kill all humans? Yeah, real children's material there ^_^)

[Der Cute]

I"ve got a black t-shirt that states:

Tact is for people not witty enough to be sarcastic.

I wear it a lot and love the looks I get.

Cutenoob

[Getoutofmylobby]

Poo. When I'm a mom someday, I will NOT allow them to play any video games like that. At least, not until they're old enough to know better.

The problem is 90% of parents do NOT think this way and they allow the tv/ps2/gun toting redneck of a stepdad to be the primary role model to kids.

[rant]

I grew up playing video games and when I walked the streets playing "Bad Dudes" on my Nintendo i knew the difference between beating someone up in real life and playing a video game.

The thing is, violence directed at kids isn't anything new. Remember Tom and Jerry? Wile E Coyote? Ever watch pro wrestling? Or hell, the nightly news?

Stuff like this pisses me off. Things like GTA will always be made because they make lots of money and we live in a society that protects our freedom of expression. So with this as a reality parents need to take responsibility. If they don't and expect "real life" to educate their kids for them, then they have nobody to blame but themselves.

[/rant]

[myswtghst]

Stories like this make me love my parents all the more. My mom had the R-rated movies block put on her BB card, and I had to get the store to get her on the phone just to rent me Platoon to watch for a school assignment.

And if my mom, who's not very knowledgable about video games and only moderately internet savvy, can get online to get game reviews to buy DS games for me and my brother for presents, other parents can get online to check out games before they agree to buy them for their kids.

[Ackee]

I"You cannot see this Timmy, you're not old enough yet!"... but if it's a video game the response is "Aw but he wants it!"

I wish they(parents) would want to rid the earth from the burden of their presence...
Look, there is a line busy traffic, take this blindfold, walk into it. Go on, its fun, there are doritos as a prize at the end.

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, yeah, and a fun fact from the world of the Department of Justice statistics sheet:

Violent crime per capita has been falling steadily and is currently less than half of what it was just 15 years ago. The rates from 1973 (when they started keeping records) till 1994 fluctuated, but were essentially stable. Anyone who tells you things are more violent now needs to do a little more research.

^-.-^

[Kara]

I did a term paper in my College Lit class about violence in the media vs violent behavior. My argument was that sometimes, people were just prone to violence, regardless of what's on TV. A great example I cited was that in Japan, where there is little to no censorship, and a hundred million programs showing people spraying 5 gallons of blood when they get a paper cut (and let's not forget tentacle rape), not to mention it's the home of the majority of videogames, and they have the lowest murder/violent crime rate in the world. More people were murdered in New York City in like 1 month that the entire country of Japan in a year.

[PharmTechPhantom]

Bottom line, the majority of the responsiblility lies with the parents. It's not the media's job to censor their own content for fear of a minor viewing it. As long as its rated properly, it's the parents' responsibility.