Rant: Over indulgent parents strike again

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 12:23:57 -0600,
(Matthew Russotto) wrote:

In article ,
Banty wrote:

to at least not **** off too badly, or the walk is next to a 100 ft unfenced
precipice.)

Actually, a 100ft unfenced precipice makes the job easier, not
harder. You just dump all the snow down there :-)

And hope like hell that there's no ice underneath the snow!
--
Brandon Sommerville
remove ".gov" to e-mail

Definition of "Lottery":
Millions of stupid people contributing
to make one stupid person look smart.

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 11:42:36 GMT, "Stephen!" wrote:

Nan wrote in
:


Actually, I have a Psych degree, Business degree, and a Journalism
degree and have owned my own housecleaning business.



All those degrees and you're still cleaning the **** stains from someone
else's toilets... congratulations...

Is there something wrong with cleaning as a job?

Honestly, someone has to do it and if you own your own business doing
this, there may be some benefits to that which have nothing to do with
the particular kind of work. Some people actually like cleaning,
though usually not the dirtiest jobs.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 08:30:04 -0800, Scott in Aztlán
wrote:

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 21:11:02 -0600, toto wrote:

The question is why bitch about the kid refusing his offer?

Is it "bitching" if you walk away from a car dealer because he refuses to sell
you a car without tacking on a $5000 markup above MSRP?

No

Is it bitching if you call this car dealer "greedy" for asking such a ridiculous price?

Frankly yes. You didn't like the price so you walked away. If the
car dealer can get someone else to buy at his price that's his right
too.

Personally, I don't consider any of this to be "bitching." The OP was merely
remarking on how over-indulgent parents have inflated their children's
expectations over and above what is reasonable compensation for
performing a menial task that requires no special skills.

But we don't *know* that the price was overinflated because we don't
know how much the going rate is nor do we know how big the job was
in terms of the amount and kind of snow or the length of the walk the
guy wanted cleared.

Imo, $10 was probably below the insult price. And I bet if he was
going to pay an adult, he would have had to pay more, though we
can't *know* that because there are too many factors missing.

Kinda like the grocery store workers who are on strike here in Southern
California; these people are making around $17/hour plus benefits to
scan groceries. That's a lot of money to pay for what is essentially
unskilled labor(*), which is why they are so ****ed; they have a cushy,
sweet deal, and they feel it slipping away.

(*) Proof that this is unskilled labor can be found a few lanes over where
the customers can check themselves out at the "self-checkout" lanes.
If anyone can walk up and complete the sale, it clearly requires no
special skills and about 10 seconds' worth of training.

Interestingly, the machines breakdown quite a bit. I have used them.
As for the checkers, I suspect they do other things besides just
checking out groceries as well. And, the checking does actually take
more than scanning depending on how people are paying and whether
or not there are glitches where the scanner will not scan the bar
code.

I have used the self-checkouts at the grocery. It's not difficult,
but the machinery breaks down fairly often and there are some
quite silly things that happen because of unreadable bar codes
or other stuff. One interesting story came accross usenet in
relation to using them at Home Depot. It seems that the thing
has a sensor to tell if you have the right weight and so you *must*
scan each item and then put it in the bag. Well, if one bar code
is bad, you can't just scan 1 item several times to alleviate this
because of the machines inability to understand what you want
to do. So Home Depot has had to hire some people just to help
customers with problems at the self-check. My bet is eventually
they may pull the self-checks out if the problems turn out to be
continual and frequent.

I can self-check at the library also, but I don't call librarians
unskilled labor. And the machines there break down and won't
scan my card all too frequently. Aside from that it seems that
many people would rather wait in line and talk to an actual
person here.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 11:51:28 GMT, "Stephen!" wrote:

(Brent P) wrote in news:mgnLb.2369$I06.17042
@attbi_s01:

I would hate to be a kid now. Dumbed down, locked away from anything
that might hurt them etc. My parents didn't let me do half the stuff
I wanted, but I still got to play with model rockets, electricity,
etc etc. And generally did it without supervision. Although I never
did anything particularly dangerous, most of it is probably disallowed
today.



You'll be happy to know that some schools consider a snowball fight a
punishable "act of violence" now...

****ing ******s...

Cite please.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 15:32:27 GMT, (Brent P)
wrote:

In article , Stephen! wrote:
(Brent P) wrote in news:mgnLb.2369$I06.17042
@attbi_s01:

I would hate to be a kid now. Dumbed down, locked away from anything
that might hurt them etc. My parents didn't let me do half the stuff
I wanted, but I still got to play with model rockets, electricity,
etc etc. And generally did it without supervision. Although I never
did anything particularly dangerous, most of it is probably disallowed
today.



You'll be happy to know that some schools consider a snowball fight a
punishable "act of violence" now...

****ing ******s...

My guess is they still punish the kid who acts in self defense too.

While this is awful, it is hard to avoid when you can't tell who
started things or who was defending and who was bullying.
Unless you are an eyewitness and most of the time teachers
don't witness the beginning of a fight, you can't always tell
which kid is in the wrong.

Punishing both is unfair, but if the rule is *no fighting,* what
would you have the school do?


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

In article , toto wrote:
On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 15:32:27 GMT, (Brent P)
wrote:

In article , Stephen! wrote:
(Brent P) wrote in news:mgnLb.2369$I06.17042
@attbi_s01:

I would hate to be a kid now. Dumbed down, locked away from anything
that might hurt them etc. My parents didn't let me do half the stuff
I wanted, but I still got to play with model rockets, electricity,
etc etc. And generally did it without supervision. Although I never
did anything particularly dangerous, most of it is probably disallowed
today.



You'll be happy to know that some schools consider a snowball fight a
punishable "act of violence" now...

****ing ******s...

My guess is they still punish the kid who acts in self defense too.

While this is awful, it is hard to avoid when you can't tell who
started things or who was defending and who was bullying.
Unless you are an eyewitness and most of the time teachers
don't witness the beginning of a fight, you can't always tell
which kid is in the wrong.

That's crap. I know from experience. The teachers know who the victim
and the perps are. But to make things easier they write up a 'zero
tolerance policy' or some other BS so they can just point to the policy
and not think. Seriously, a kid can walk up to another kid, hit him, and
the kid who got hit will get suspended for fighting without ever have
thrown a punch. And that was like 18 years ago, I shudder to think what
it is like now.

Punishing both is unfair, but if the rule is *no fighting,* what
would you have the school do?

Well let's see, stop asking for infinite tolerance. And actually
come down hard on the harrassers in the first place. Schools are
asking for children to just sit there and take the abuse. The staff
doesn't do anything to stop it. When a kid stands up for himself,
he often gets punished too or alone. This puts a kid that is trying
to play by the rules in a really bad spot. All he can do is just
sit there and take it. And even then he isn't safe from punishment.

I think the inability of kids to fight back on a low level is a
contributor to this eventual explosion where frustration manifests
itself in a lethal event. I can only go by my personal experience,
and what I've seen/read.

Paul wrote in :
[snip]
BTW, misc.kids and rec.motorcycles ?? Where did these come from??

I don't know about rec.motorcycles, but misc.kids sprung fully formed
from the loins of net.kids, back in thre great re-naming of 1987 (or was
it 1986). Before my time, anyway.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three
usenetting since 1993

toto wrote in
:

Actually, I have a Psych degree, Business degree, and a Journalism
degree and have owned my own housecleaning business.


All those degrees and you're still cleaning the **** stains from
someone else's toilets... congratulations...

Is there something wrong with cleaning as a job?



Not at all... It helped my mother put food on the table during the lean
years... but it certainly doesn't take a bunch of B.S. degrees to do
it...


--
IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com

Nan wrote in
:

Actually, I have a Psych degree, Business degree, and a Journalism
degree and have owned my own housecleaning business.

Kewl! When will you be coming by to mow my lawn?

I don't do lawns.
My accounts included restaurants and bars. I probably made more in
one month sending out employees to do the cleaning than you do,
sweetie.


No English degree, eh?


--
IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com

Nan wrote in
:

Interesting how Jon's dropped out of this thread... no answers on how
deep the snow was, how long his walk is, and how he ended up getting
it done.



Interesting how this "do it for the children" bull**** keeps showing up
on rec.motorcycles....

--
IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com