it' boils down to teaching your kids to repect things while also realizing that accidents do happen.

 

When picking up our brand-new Tahoe my (then) 3-year old daughter broke her snow globe in the back seat - on the dealer's lot. Glass, glitter and snow globe jiz all over the back seat. My wife and I laughed our asses off! The Tahoe has since seen much worse from my kids.

 

Anyone ever seen dennis leary's lock 'n load routine?

Wheres your sister?

Outside

What is she doing outside?

Drawing

On what?

Your car

My car?!?!

With a rock.

So I go outside to see that little drunkin monkey on acid standing on the running board of my brand new....

Back to me:
The weekend we got the car we went to Ihop to have my 13 year old brother bring some sugar packets into the car and try to eat them. What are you feeding that kid? hes three and those tiny nails scrathed your car.

 

Ha! same thing almost happened to me.

My 3yr old was taking out her Barbie bike out of the garage and as she was about to have the handle bars gouge the driver's door, I purposely dropped my glass cup to to catch her attention so she could stop before she does some damage. Luckily it worked.

 

Yep. You can pretty much sum up the responsibility and goal of raising children on one sentence.

Raise them to become decent and responsible adults.

How you go about this is not all that difficult and is something that is age old and time proven. Two words: discipline and respect. These are musts and everything else about raising children MUST flow from these two words. I would also add love since without this.. without a parent showing their love for their child, those two words will ring hollow. But then again, I am assuming that any parent worth their salt will naturally love their children.. instinct, you know.

My two daughters are the two best things I've ever done in my life.. and they know that because I've told them so (just told my youngest that last night). Both are grown now, the oldest has a daughter and my youngest just informed us last night that she's pregnant. Yes, they're both married.

I have seen kids who have grown up in homes where the parents "let them express themselves". What idiots.. the parents, that is. Expressing yourself to a degree is fine. But taking it to some of the extremes I've seen is not only nonsense, it's down right stupid.

Oh well, this is not a topic for this forum so I had better shut up and let go of it.

 

Acid horse, couldnt you have just yelled, HEY? Less cleanup, though I have thrown glass cups really high in the air to see how much of frag zone there would be. Yes, I would consider myself easily entertained.

 

I got rear-ended by someone without insurance. She was driving a piece of crap and working two jobs with a kid in the back seat. Damage wasn't too bad, but back bumper needs to be replaced. I told her to be more careful and to have a nice day.

Now I can justify the ronjon kit

 

It was probably the buttons on his jacket, at the wrists. Not his nails..if i had to guess.

It could be worse, My friend's son took a screwdriver to his Lexus..he was tring to "fix" it! haha

 

At least you can easily fix a damaged car (or replace it). Not so easy with a damaged / misguided child. I'd give the kid a hug, thank him for his effort (intentions) and plan to spend some time explaining how good intentions can go bad. Not sure how successful that would be with a 3 year old...but it is a start.

And when he wasn't looking...I'd kick his BigWheel.

 

Here is another one to watch out for.
A friend got a new car some time ago (chrysler minivan) and one of his son's,
trying to be nice, cleaned the snow off the car so mom would not have to.
unfortunetly, he used a metal shovel like you use for digging dirt.

My friend is the type who hates to spend money, especialy for a car
that will depriciate, but he could only get so mad since his boy was trying to do
a good thing....

Brett

 

At least it was your own 3 year old kid that scratched the car.
How would you feel if it was someone else's kids that put these scratches on your car?
Would you still say "at least he's happy and healthy?"

The scratches appear to be very minor.

 

People need to stop thinking children are just mini-adults. They're kids. $35k means nothing to a 3-year-old, and (collective gasp from TLphiles) neither does that TL.

I buy/trade cars on a regular basis, but I can't think of ever trading in the kid. Had a Nissan Altima back in the day that I used to wrestle/tickle the boy (then 8) by rolling him all over the hood - he'd be hysterical with laughter. The car's hood had some dents when I got rid of it, but I loved every one of them.

 

Here we are on an automotive forum discussing our theories of raising/disciplining our kids....

It's all good!!

I pretty much agree with all of you here - other's I can't judge due to being just like you in my past.. :-)

By far, one of the hardest yet most enjoyable/rewarding things in life is being a parent. Like others have mentioned, it's our job/goal in life to do the best we can to "mentor":: to teach, to mold, to instill, to be an example for, the list goes on and on when it comes to raising a child to be a responsible, respectful, and law-abiding individual in society.
I think all of us that enjoy automobiles have (or will have) numerous stories of our kids and our actions when it comes to an issue involving all three .
The one thing we all need to tell ourselves is their is a difference between a child being vindictive (doing something they know is wrong) and a child having a "learning" experience. Brettg, your shovel story took me back when the same happened with my son. Same scenario yet he grabbed the dirty course bristle broom and tried to clean the snow off the hood. He had seen either I or mom do it before (a soft broom specific for that though). I jumped, yelled and grabbed it out of his hands.. I will never forget the crushed look on my little mans face, after all, he was just trying to help dad with the snow.. It only took me a moment to realize how poorly I handled that situation. Sure their were scratches on the hood, they could be fixed, but knowing/seeing the confusion and sadness in my 4 year olds eyes,,,, needless to say the paint buffer couldn't fix that....

My son is 8 now. he and my daughter could be playing with friends, baseball, basketball, jamming on the Xbox, you name it. All I have to do is ask either if they want to help me change the oil, wash the cars, etc.. They will drop everything just to hang with dad and do something they know I enjoy. They love to "help" with the cars. Trust me, I still have my moments of "stress" when either does something unorthodox.. I just try to make things safe for them and the vehicle as we spend quality time together.

Cheers all.

 

Sounds like KJSmitty's TL adopted one cool family!

Now I gotta get my owner's manual back out and find that section on TL & Family Rearing. Do you think a group hug will scratch the paint?

Good stuff.

 

You're a good man.

 

Ever think that when you "jumped, yelled and grabbed it out of his hands" might have made him the great kid that he is now? I think you handled it correctly.

Discipline and love is the answer. I'm old school and believe in disciplining my son when he's done wrong. He's only 4 and friends, family and teachers say he's very well behaved. I've seen other kids doing crap and all the parents do is say "oh honey, that's not nice, please stop". What kind of discipline is that? My buddy's kids are jumping all over my sofas when they come over, smacking eat other's heads with the zip lock bags full of chocolate chip cookies and then running into our bedroom and jumping all over our bed. What kind of parents give their kids chocolate f@cking chip cookies when going to friends' homes???? And the parents did nothing! A 4 year old kid at the preschool said to the teacher "you're stupid", because the teacher told him to sit down in his seat. His parents are super nice and they cater to his every need. Like orange soda when he's throwing a tantrum. Have they ever spanked him? I've never seen it and I don't think they do. This kid is also a bully at school. Thank god, not my problem!

A researcher wrote an article about orphaned male elephants in Africa and noted that this gang of elephants were alway causing trouble. He wrote that this behavior was probably due to the fact that these elephants did not receive discipline from their parents when they were young and are now just bad adult elephants. I think that's a message to us humans.

Sorry for rambling on, but just wanted to add my

rbf351, you did the right thing.

 

Completely agree with ya hcekc,

I just know for myself it's very easy to fly off the handle with either words, inflection, gestures or motions that are unnecessary given a completely "innocent" action by a young child.

Now, when it comes to something they have already learned to be right or wrong, and disobedience is the issue,,, I'm with you - "Old school" discipline/love is alive and well. (As a kid though, discipline and love are a huge contradiction)

My sister and I often discuss this topic with our folks, and that if we were to discipline our kids like they use to us, we would get thrown in jail But I know for a fact that my sister and I wouldn't be where we are today if it hadn't been for their consistency.
Maybe I'll call my dad tomorrow and tell him thanks for kicking my ass when I was an ass....(For the 80th time).



What do ya think guys... - Are the younger single folks here starting to hum "Kum ba yah" (Kumbaya) by now...? :-) :-) :-)

 

Thrown in jail. Tell me they don't do that in Texas for disciplining your kids.

Screw the DSS (Department of Social Services). It's my kid and I'll do what I know to work. What do they know about raising children.

There are acutally Americans who believe it's wrong to spank your children! Can you imagine that?? What the hell is wrong with them? When raising children, you never throw out a tool because you have some crazy idea that it's "wrong".. you just might be ignoring the one that will work.

Good Lord, they're not going to break. I got my share of beatings when I was little from mostly my mom, and occasionly from my dad. Like I wrote before, I'm thankful they cared enough for me that they did that. Not at the time, mind you, but most certainly now.. looking back.

If some DSS lacky came to my door because a neighbor complained that I was "abusing" my children (as in spanking) God knows what I'd do. I have lots of guns.......

 

not sure if you read my other posts, but they scratches aren't a big deal to me, i was just saying what happened

if it was someone elses kid they would be paying for it

 

Greetings SouthernBoy,

You would probably be amazed at what the DSS considers "child endangerment" let lone "abuse".
I knew a coworker about 3 years ago that had his kids taken from his home for near two weeks due to a disgruntled neighbor (not a discipline issue)... Took the family six months and all of their savings to get the entire mess cleared. They eventually moved out of TX.

I would never say DSS is bad. They have a tough job involving emotional pain with both kids and parents. Sometimes they get it wrong, but when they do I know they would rather have inflicted pain on a caring adult vs come back to find a badly abused or dead child.

As for TX throwing you in jail for spanking/disciplining your kids.... I don't think so. But from what I have been told, they have no problem coming and removing a child from a home were any form of "abuse" has been "identified". "Identified" is definitely the key word here - and that can be the tricky part. But when it comes to actual abuse, I agree the child should get the benefit of the doubt.

Raise em well!


Cheers