# Stupid-ass parents who refuse to watch their children, and critters who pay the price

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ass-parents-who-refuse-to-watch-their-children-and-critters-who-pay-the-price/367939>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [August 9, 2006, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ass-parents-who-refuse-to-watch-their-children-and-critters-who-pay-the-price/367939 "2006-08-09T00:28:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ass-parents-who-refuse-to-watch-their-children-and-critters-who-pay-the-price/367939/61 "2006-08-10T03:02:14Z")

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[QUOTE=danceswithcats]  
Sometimes I wonder if my stance on parenting is draconian, as my parents would have had me get the shots, then kicked my ass for going where I shouldn’t have, and summers thereafter would’ve been spent shoveling meerkat shit as an indentured servant to the zoo. Apparently many of you think like Mom and Dad. 🙂  
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If I’d done something that stupid, you **bet** my parents would have made me pay for it. Pretty much as you describe. They were very loving and caring people, but they had a short fuse when it came to **stupid** behavior. More than anything, they taught me that I was responsible for my actions, for good or ill, and that I should face them like an adult.

Thanks, Mom & Dad. I probably didn’t say that enough growing up.

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**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-ass-parents-who-refuse-to-watch-their-children-and-critters-who-pay-the-price/367939/62 "2006-08-10T13:58:53Z")

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I guess that’s probably the heart of the matter - kids being raised by parents who have indeed enforced the lesson of “actions and consequences” probably **won’t** stick their hands in meerkat cages and get bitten. This nine-year-old is just having the lesson her parents have already taught her enforced - do as you please, because you’re special and the rules don’t apply to you. She’ll do just fine in the world we’re making.

(Like you guys, my parents would have been in the “well, what did you do _that_ for?” camp, and suggested a couple of extra needles for me to really drive the point home. 😃 )

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