And now there IS a real choice?

According to this article, Justice of the Peace Gustavo Garza can no longer give parents the choice of paying a fine or paddling their children in open court when their kids break the law. The reason: three families are suing the judge saying that the choice left them with no real option. So, a judge has ruled that Garza may no longer offer the choice of paddling. Obviously, there are way MORE options now. Interestingly, according to the article, paddling was the option chosen in 98 percent of the cases, and was chosen by the parents who initiated the lawsuit. Perhaps it is the FINE that they wanted done away with?

Two weeks

In the two weeks leading up to Easter Sunday, one of our kids got booted out of school, again, and the sheriff had to come out to the house on three separate occassions because of something the other kid did. I don't much care to go into detail about what they did right now. I've heard over and over again that this is all just "normal kid stuff." I don't think so. I've lost count of the number of times the sheriff has visited the house. I've lost count of how many times I've had to pick our son up at school. I don't see anything normal at all about this. To make matters worse, the school doesn't support us (parents) at all. And the sheriff lectures me that I shouldn't be too hard on the kids. So, the sheriff gives my daughter a drink, and sits and sympathizes with her, then presumes to tell me that it's all my fault they had to come out. The school rewards my son for NOT throwing a tantrum, then tells me I have to deal with it when he does. And, of course, in their opinion, I'm too harsh. When I was a kid, people spanked their kids with a belt for these sorts of behavior, and the kids didn't usually do THAT again. Now, it's too harsh to yell and make them stay in their rooms. I'm glad I won't be around to see how this generation turns out.