Both here and in the discourse on that article the comments seem to be relatively one-sided... hardly anything but commenters with an opinion on "kids these days," how rude and unruly this horrible teen is. Didn't anyone catch the part where the cords were yanked out of the wall and she shoved him when he got in the way? What kind of respect is the mother showing? If this is what he's come to expect, it shouldn't be surprising that he'd exhibit similar behaviour himself.
I don't know why it's such a popular notion that children be seen and not heard, or preferably neither seen nor heard. Teach a person from the get-go that their opinions and feelings are subordinate to the whim of others, teach them to be powerless and accept it as normalcy and you will reap one of two results: they will grow into a weak and fearful adult (and we already have millions of those), or they will rebel to assert themselves as an independent human being.
The more knee-jerky, B&W-insistent of you will assert this means I fall into the "children are angels" camp, but you'd be mistaken... I merely believe many people don't have a clue how to be responsible human beings, and though this particular kid is old enough to be making some effort to take care of himself (I'll cut him some slack given the economy), I can't find fault with him without finding even greater fault with the mother. I don't advocate boot camps, either, which are only institutions for force-feeding the belief in personal powerlessness.
"Discipline" isn't a synonym for "punishment." It means to encourage orderly conduct for instruction. If you aren't getting the results you want, try something different, not more of the same.
I don't know why it's such a popular notion that children be seen and not heard, or preferably neither seen nor heard. Teach a person from the get-go that their opinions and feelings are subordinate to the whim of others, teach them to be powerless and accept it as normalcy and you will reap one of two results: they will grow into a weak and fearful adult (and we already have millions of those), or they will rebel to assert themselves as an independent human being.
The more knee-jerky, B&W-insistent of you will assert this means I fall into the "children are angels" camp, but you'd be mistaken... I merely believe many people don't have a clue how to be responsible human beings, and though this particular kid is old enough to be making some effort to take care of himself (I'll cut him some slack given the economy), I can't find fault with him without finding even greater fault with the mother. I don't advocate boot camps, either, which are only institutions for force-feeding the belief in personal powerlessness.
"Discipline" isn't a synonym for "punishment." It means to encourage orderly conduct for instruction. If you aren't getting the results you want, try something different, not more of the same.