I overheard a strange conversation between my co-workers this morning. One of them asked another if she lived near the woman who had been blugeoned to death by her daughter. She responded that she did live in the neighborhood, but not near enough that she knew the woman. I was blissfully unaware of anything happening beyond the borders of my home this weekend, so I had no idea what they were talking about, but a few minutes on Google took care of that.


It sounds like the 14 year-old daughter was actually adopted (from comments to the story I've read), so she may have come into the family with emotional baggage. Then again, the mom was 56, so if it was her natural daughter, she might have been born from a rancid egg and been slightly off. Who knows? I know nothing more than what I've read, so I can't really speculate.

Being the bunch of auld-bastards-with-kids that we are, the conversation immediately centered on our lone female co-worker and focused on what she could do to prevent her own daughter (now 5 years old) from braining her in her sleep. Her response was to get a helmet. And not to turn her back on her daughter. My thoughts: it's time to get some life insurance on my wife. My girls are getting close to the age of implosion when hormones control everything they do and say.

The bigger question is this: what the hell is wrong with kids these days?

WTF is up with that

Problem these days with kids is they get away with everything. The way I was raised you don't even mouth back at your mother ... EVER !!

I ask myself every single day this question: "Where did I go wrong?".

I'd like to think that I'm a good mom, but a good mom wouldn't raise a three year old that thinks screaming is a form of communication and a nine year old that has perfected the art of talking back. Then again, the girls do have the influence of another parent. I could always blame him.

Kids today think parents owe them something. What that something is, I haven't a clue. My nine year old is the most ungrateful brat on the face of the planet. For example, we took her to a puppet show downtown and before the show was even over she wanted to know what we were going to do next. What the hell? When I was a kid, I was grateful to get to go to a movie once every few months. Erica has never been spoiled. I think she sees all her other little friends being spoiled rotten and she expects the same.

As I'm typing this, she just soccer kicked a beach ball into the TV...you know, the one that cost THOUSANDS of dollars.

It's my kids that should worry about me beating them to death.

You and I have the same parenting philosophy.