Reply #51: I'm so sick of movies, tv & music being blamed - where are the parents????

[AZBlue]

I personally could do without looking at another person smoking ever again (in real life or on the screen) and think that we should do whatever we can to stop the young from starting to smoke - it's those that start at a young age that have the hardest time quitting.

HOWEVER...

Where are the parents?? Why doesn't anyone ever ask that question? What happened to parental interaction? Punishment for bad behavior? Being grounded for misbehaving? Boundaries and rules that are enforced? I see so many people I know who don't want to be bothered to ground their kids because then they'd have to stay home too. It's just easier to give in. They don't want to hassle with a fight. I'm sorry, but if you don't want that responsibility then you have no right having children in the first place.

Bad influences are all around us - they see people smoking, for example, in the movies, on tv, in the mall and at school (and I'm talking about the teachers, not the students). But if parents just took a few minutes to discuss the ramifications of actions and show that you have to pay the price for what you do, then a lot less kids would start smoking, do drugs, drop out of school....you can apply this logic to a lot of issues.