On 2006-04-25, CA-TINA WHIDDON wrote:
The majority of today's kids have no respect for their elders.
Whatever happened to "yes ma'am" and " no sir" etc. ? Nowadays
it's "yeah" and "uh-uh". Not to mention those that are telling the
parents what to do and cussing them out when they don't get their
way. I never would have thought about saying and doing such things
as the kids of today. What is our world coming to? Frankly, it
scares me to death!

The majority of kids throughout history have had little respect for
their elders. This is not news.

The use of "yes ma'am" and "no sir" is primarily a regional phenomenon
in the US, though it is prevalent among military families. The use of
these phrases does not indicate any more respect than "yeah" or
"uh-uh", just a different dialect of English.

I have not observed the problem of "telling the parents what to do and
cussing them out when they don't get their way"---neither from my son
nor from any of his friends or classmates. That sort of behavior
problem would definitely be seen as a serious one requiring soem sort
of intervention around here. (That's not to deny that such behavior
exists, and may even be common in some communities, just that I don't
hang around with people for whom such behavior is normal.)

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Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus