disgusting homeless people in libraries

[lester1/2jr]

all of the people around me regardles of their age are looking at facebook or some equivalent.  A few are looking for work, but I think the whole notion of the internet as an educational tool has gone out the window

[AndyC]

True enough, but surely your ideas on this matter don't align with everybody's. I guarantee there's SOMEONE that didn't think it was OK for your kid to run/whatever someplace you thought it was OK, and vice-versa. There's always going to be someone complaining that what YOU are doing is wrong, and you'll chalk them up as being overly uptight, there will always be people who you see as letting their kids go out of control, and they'll chalk YOU up as being overly uptight.

Not everyone is going to draw the line in exactly the same place. The important thing is that they draw it somewhere, and that they are consistent about it, whether at home, at someone's house or in a public place. And it's not just a matter of keeping the kids on a leash. They need to hear why they're not allowed to do something. The mistake a lot of people make is assuming the kid is too young to understand and putting it off.

Yes, every kid is going to act up sometimes, and some parents are more laid back than others, but I can see a difference between kids who have consistent boundaries from the beginning and those whose parents are just sort of winging it when it comes to discipline. By discipline, I mean teaching self-control. We don't really give out any punishment per se. It's not really needed.

[Zapranoth]

I was one of those kids who spent hours on the computer in school, every chance I got.  I was that kid.  I spent more hours than I can count on computers, in arcades -- any time I could get to do so.  Through middle school, high school, and college.  Some of med school too, although I was pinched hard for time by then and by then I had sworn off all multi-user dungeons and related games.  (Includes WoW, which to this day I have never seen on a screen, and will never play.)

It's not a an end-all.  I still turned out educated and successful by most measures, thus far.  I was physically active, I did my homework, I respected my parents (because they deserved it), and I learned self-control. 

I suspect that your aggravation isn't about their computer gaming, but about the implied lack of teaching other important things.