Sims 2 "Worse than Hot Coffee for GTA"; Possible Ban?

We remodeled our kitchen when my children were about 5, 13 and 14. I had the contractors build a cupboard designed to be locked, and that's where I put the alcohol, a few of my favorite treats and the sugar. My next-door neighbor was SO shocked. "How can you lock them out? That's like not trusting them!" I said, "This stuff is mine, it's not free." Nor was it the only part of the house the children were not allowed to roam freely. She said, "Well, I can't imagine having a part of my life that my children weren't allowed in." So true! Her children were MONSTERS - spoiled, manipulative, whining kids who totally ruled her life. She "disciplined" them by wheedling and begging and giving in to whims and putting her needs always second. I once suggested a different approach to her son and she said, "But then he won't like me." That's it in a nutshell.

We are not their friends. We are their PARENTS.

Saw her recently (we moved years ago). Her kids, now teens, are not doing so well. She has no control over them.

Mine, young adults, are doing okay - not perfect, but okay. The one who'd been a disheveled goth in high school now gives up his seat on the bus for old ladies.

The once-disheveled goth (now wears vintage bowling shirts and an Elvis pompadour) is the one who was genuinely shocked that I liked to play Grand Theft Auto. "Mom! That game is pretty violent!"

 

There is also a problem with parents being too strict with their children. I know for a fact, as many of my Asian friends are overstressed and pushed to get good grades and such. My parents are different, though. All of their Asian friends, parents of my Asian friends, tell them that they should push us more, and that they'll regret it when we grow up, but really, I feel that my parents are doing the right thing. It's the pushiness of first-generation Asians that causes the Japanese to commit suicide! My siblings and I are generally left to our own devices for most of the day, and my mom just makes sure we do our homework, practice our respective instruments, and that we maintain above average grades.

And, Jiko, I myself sometimes feel like acting like a Goth, and I have numerous all-black outfits in my closet, but really, it's just the cultural influence. Being Goth is one of the new trends, and eventually some of my friends and I will mature into responsible adults--hopefully.

 

Dear Person, I didn't mind the goth stuff a bit. If he wanted to spend all his cash on a black leather jacket and then ruin it by putting a hundred safety pins all over it - well, it was his money! I believe kids need to rebel/explore/test in order to develop strong personalities, and that parents need to be properly shocked at small things in order not to stimulate the big stuff. (A problem with too-permissive parenting: if the hair isn't an issue, maybe you need tattoos or piercings to get a reaction...) He was a thrasher (skater) for a few years, a goth, a criminal of a minor bent (smoking, shoplifting condoms, etc.), then a poetry slam punk, then the ironic fashionista, and now a lounge lizard... he's okay, I like him a lot. Smart, funny, handsome and a big-time blogger now.

The balance is hard and I would submit, different kids need different balances of permission and refusal. There are no one-size-fits-all parenting models. Another problem with trying to legislate private behavior and thought.

 

Nothing wrong with wearing black, as long as you're not dying your hair funny colors, bleaching yourself until you're whiter than I am, and then riddling yourself with shrapnel. Because if you want shrapnel wounds, join the Army.

 

One of my dad's African American employees said that when she was little, she swallowed a whole bottle of bleach in attempts to become "white".

I doubt I'd be able to pierce my nose or something without getting infected and dying. I tried piercing my ears once, and something or other with the metal and allergens and bla bla, I ended up letting the holes close.

As for dying my hair funny colors, I'd have trouble finding clothes that would match with bright, bubblegum-pink hair.

 

That only works if you want to become white INSIDE. Didn't she read the directions, "For External Use Only"?

 

I used my wonderful paint editor (Called Paint) and made this:feel free to print it out, put it on billboards, plaster it up around your town, stick it on the back of Jack Thompson, Ect.

Also, Please Email Ole Jack (At <!-- Removing Email --> ) and tell him HE should be censored Just Kidding, Tell him that He should go after Mattel next for selling barbies, then Sony, Casio, Samsung, Gateway, Dell, and all the people that make TVs and tell them theit TVs are causing kids to play violent video games and see graphic images. and then after the computer makers for the same reason.

 

I thought you said you had a closet full of black goth clothes. Black goes with everything! Bubblegum-pink would be striking. Oh...and no matter what anyone tells you if you go this route...gasoline is NOT the best solution for removing it. Waking one morning to the smell of gasoline permeating the house was scary. To realize your kid is washing their hair in it is...well...one of the many adventures of parenting teens.

 

I raised two kids deep in Baltimore City. They encountered everything while growing up. They had friends who fried their brains on drugs, who had babies too soon, who failed and dropped out of school. Mine survived all that and grew up OK. My daughter is working on her PhD at the U of CA in Berkeley. My son, after being on his own for awhile, went back to school, got his Bachelors and is now looking for his 'dream' job. He's living with us in the meantime, an easy going young man who helps around the house.

No question about it, as a parent you have to know what your kids are doing and, if necessary, talk to them about it. Mine played computer games alot, some of them very violent. They knew I didn't like the games and they knew why, because we talked about it. Same for TV shows, and movies. It was impossible to completely forbid some things because they'd encounter them at the home of friends. A movie I had refused to let them see, they saw at CAMP, for pete's sake. I realized that it's the forbidden fruit that is most attractive so I was careful about forbidding something AND not talking about it. Boy, that's guaranteed to incite lethal curiousity.

Uh oh, my better half is home. Gotta run.

 

OMG that's funny. Good thing your kid wasn't near an open fire.

I'm afraid I'm doomed to a kid with tattoos ... for one thing I have one. She wears temporary tattoos all the time. When she was little she used to cover her body with them, now that she's reached the ripe old age of 7 she's a bit more refined about it ... only two or three at a time.

I only have pierced ears, though, nothing else. I'm allergic to nickel, so that's a sign to me that piercing anything else could get a bit, well, painful. I did dye my hair blue in college, though ...

Personally I think some facial piercings look a bit weird, but that's probably my age showing. And I've heard that tongue piercings can weaken your heart, something about the metal traveling inside your body, so I'm definitely forbidding that, at least ...

Kids need to express themselves. I know I'd rather have a pink bubble gum haired goth skater punk with tattoos and piercings than say, a gang member or a juvenile delinquent. Not that my daughter's heading that way. Some people think I'm permissive, I admit, but she's growing up just fine. Her teachers have nothing bad to say about her and all the kids like her. So I must be doing something right ... you don't always need a heavy hand to be a good parent. I'm not afraid to put my foot down when it calls for it, but she hardly ever needs it.

Jiko, your son sounds like a good kid. You should be proud.

 

I got really cheesed off when I realized that my son's high school was selling espresso to the students. Not to mention the soda machines. I'd forbidden coffee until they weren't bouncing off the walls from hormones.

I'm going to send our dear Mr. Thompson a note. I think he should consider banning Bible classes. There's some nasty stuff in there.

 

I am now questioning this Email Address, Look at the relpy I got: "no, we're going to ban idiot gamers, and you're first on the list. Social Security number, please."AND it was CCd to someone at Gamespot and Gamepolitics.com

 

It's a frustrating position, being a parent. You wonder the whole time if you're too strict or not strict enough. You worry that you're doing serious psychological damage just by yelling at them about cleaning their rooms. Dr. Spock and all those 'professionals' have made us too nervous about our own instincts to do right by our children. My daughter was an absolute terror until she started kindergarten. Thought I'd lose my mind and ruin hers. Hard to remember those days now because we've had so much fun together in recent years.

Kids with problems have those problems with or without violent computer games, TV and movies. But I might suggest caution, that kids simply don't "know" what adults know. It's easy for them to believe in ghosts and creepy things in the closet or under the bed. (A lot of adults believe in that silliness, too--my crazy brother, for one.) And I also believe that kids don't grasp what death really is. I read of an elementary school age child whose NRA father had carefully trained him in the use, care and safety (so he claimed) of guns. Regardless of this 'training' the child shot, deliberately, aiming carefully from a window, and killed a classmate he was mad at. How could he possibly understand the magnitude of what he'd done? The father was clearly assuming that his son was capable of adult reasoning, and he was wrong, and someone died.

I haven't followed much of what Mr. Thompson is up to. I would guess, maybe wrongly, that his campaign against the violent and obscene that our kids are exposed to does not extend to guns. As others have mentioned in this thread, this guy is after money and that's it, period.

 

That's kind of bolognium, although why you care about their rooms at all is beyond me.

That's nothing a rolled up newspaper and a spray bottle can't fix.

This is generally because parents unwittingly or deliberately encourage such irrational and silly beliefs, rather than debunking them in a methodical and logical manner. When people go around telling kids about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, is it any surprise that they start to get some really silly ideas into the heads?

That's because adults tell kids dumb ****, like "he's only asleep", rather than carefully explaining what exactly death is, how it can be caused, and the fact that it is not generally considered to be a reversible process.

Undoubtedly because he failed to instill a proper understanding of both the concept of "death", and the fact that killing people is very illegal and should only be done in either self-defense, or if you are prepared to hide the body, and that you should never kill somebody out of anger: If you must kill somebody, you have to plan it carefully and methodically. Remember this: "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill because they pissed me off."

You have some strange kids. I would never have put gasoline in my hair. That ****'s flammable. My father taught me how to make all sorts of fun stuff from it, and that, like stupidity, you don't want to get any of that on you!

 

ouch. sounds like we got some bad seeds in the VG community who are taking this a bit too far.

i have to agree with Thompson on the fact that those who have threatened him should really watch their hind quarters before they get a fat lawsuit slapped in their faces.

but im sure i can say it for the rest of us here when i say we are still fighting for our rights and that thompson is still a paper pushing moron with his head up his ***.

 

I don't think the man has a very good case, and if he does, he's got a very long hit list: Two words: "Nude Raider".

 

Tell us all about the kids you've raised JMP. Do they eat spiders, too?

 

If I had any kids, they certainly would. Sadly, in this day and age, it's nearly impossible to find a worthy mate due to the sad degradation of the genetic lines of most everyone else around. And I refuse to lower my standards.