"Preacher's Daughters"

Oh my god--that mom with the 16 year old daughter with a boyfriend needs to trust her daughter. It pisses me off that we have video evidence of the fact that they weren't lying about the boundaries discussion and the mom is deluding herself into hating a REALLY great kid!

And then there's the parents of the party girl--uh, you're daughter is going to her first(?) real party at a friend's house and they didn't call the parents of the friend to double check her plans? I'm sorry, but if that was my kid, I would have at least casually asked the friend about the get together.

Double standard? Not really.

In case A, they're just talking and hugging when "caught". The boy has been very patient and respectful otherwise and has not given any indication that he wants to break the mother's rules (except getting out of a stuffy party to go outside said stuffy party to a place where everyone at said stuffy party can still see them--no bushes).

In case B, apparently (I don't have the first episode) the girl has talked about the freedom of porn stars, though I have no idea what the context is. Her parent's know that she's a "wild child" but hope that some small freedoms will keep her on the otherwise straight and narrow. It isn't infringing on that child's freedom to double check the details of the event in question. In fact, I'm sure Kolby (the one with the boyfriend) and the boyfriend will be more than happy for their friends to be questioned about their whereabouts since they have nothing to hide. Since the second girl (Taylor?) is going behind her parents back, she would rebel against such an inquisition.

If I were a parent, my children would either be happy to accept a few small questions and earn their freedom (and if they decided to have sex without breaking any state or federal laws, they'd better be using protection) or they'll spend their time locked in their room. The key to good parenting is training them young then letting go, confident that the training will help them make good decisions. If Kolby's mother isn't careful, her daughter is going to start going behind her back, though as an outside observer, I don't think the girl will get into any mischief. She does have a good head on her shoulders and her mother needs to encourage that.

I wonder which version of parenting Olivia (the third girl who has a baby of her own) had growing up.

Sign My Petition

During the 2012 Presidential election I got a lot of propaganda in the mail. Annoyed with it, I wrote corrections all over the stuff, added "return to sender" and sent it back.

Here's the thing. That stuff comes from an anonymous P.O. Box 9 times out of 10, so in order for it to make an impact, a lot of people need to send the stuff back. Then, the owners of the mailbox (either USPS or some mailbox store) can't just ignore it and will have to do something. Think of the impact that all the letters had in Miracle on 34th Street.

It's FREE and takes literally 20 seconds to write "RETURN TO SENDER" on the propaganda (if you have trouble locating a marker, maybe longer). You'd also better mark out the barcode USPS prints under your address or the computer that reads the to-addresses will send it right back to you in a never-ending circle. Then, you don't even have to find a post box since the postman will take outgoing mail left on your mailbox (just use a clothespin or other clip).

Take this link to the petition.

By the way, I like that a petition must get 150 signatures before it reaches the main petitions page--this is a very good way to vet petitions to keep out the bad ones.