So, exactly what qualifies one to be a parent? Just because you have a uterus, doesn't mean that you should use it. Just because you can produce sperm, doesn't mean that you should do it. Working in a public high school, I am ever amazed by the myriad of parents who really don't care where their children are.

"Yes, ma'am. I'm calling to see if you can tell me why {Jason} is not at school today?"
"Aww, f***, I dunno. I'm just so sick of this s*** and y'all're always callin' me to find 'im. As if I'm s'pos'ta know where he is."
"Well, ma'am, he is your son. Did you know he wasn't at school today?"
"I dunno. He don't tell me nothin'"

etc., etc., etc.

This is a typical conversation with the mother of any number of boys in my class. So, I ask again, could someone please tell me what qualifies these people to be parents.

My own parents were lacking in many ways. They instilled in me many different forms of intolerance which I had to overcome in my twenties. They were controlling and manipulating and often very disapproving of a child, who, by any terms was not difficult to handle. I never snuck out of the house. I never drank, smoke, did drugs, or (knowingly) dated anyone who did. I was respectful. If I wanted to yell at my mother, I knew I was going to get the back of her hand across my face, so I didn't do it. My father wasn't really around when I was in my teens, but the same rules applied to him. Regardless of their faults, they did their best to see that I was in school and completing that education.

Never in my high school career did I dare to tell my mother that I wasn't going to get up and go to school. Indeed when I was sick I often got up and went to school anyway. Her opinion (wrong or not) was that if you could walk on your own, you needed to be in school.

So, when I call a mother and she tells me that she tried to wake her son, but he just simply wouldn't get up, I have to wonder what has gone wrong in society or with parents. Why is it that a mother is afraid to stand in the doorway and say "You are getting your happy little butt out of bed, or you will not be going anywhere or doing anything for the next several weeks." Whether or not you believe in different forms of discipline, at some point in a child's life, that child must be disciplined. When did we lose the ability to do that?

Some parents don't like to spank. That is perfectly fine with me. There are plenty of other ways to achieve results. Every child will rebel. That is a given. But to allow rebellion to go so unchecked that by the time the child reaches 15 years of age, the mother is afraid of him, or her is ridiculous. Independence is good. Rebellion for the sake of just saying no is not.

This is just my little rant on the state of parenting today. I realize that there are some parents who do phenomenal jobs with their children. But the more I look at society the more anger I see in younger generations and it's frightening. There will always be those who believe they don't have to follow the rules and the ones they manipulate, but (at least to me) it seems that those people are becoming more and more common.