So you really can blame the parents, instead of their children?

CMT has developed, or at least has brought to us, a television program entitled: "World's Strictest Parents;" and as of Thu., Jul. 23, 2008 around 12:00 PM ET/PT, the show made its debut by portraying some very "unruly" as they put it, teenagers. As teenagers have the tendency to do from time to time, they showed a great amount of disrespect in their homes towards their parents, friends, authority figures, etc... Smoking, drinking, illegal use of drugs and just flat-out rebellion. They were literally spitting in the face of any and all concepts that endorsed conformity, morality and decency. Well, at least in the eyes of the show's producers who made sure to spin it in just that manner.

Wow, these kids, they put on a solid performance when it comes to showing America what every parent doesn't want in their suburbanite adolescent(s). I myself have had the opportunity to watch 3 different episodes of this latest abortion of a television genre labeled "Reality TV," and upon watching that 3rd installment, it came to me all at once... It's not the kids, it's the parents.

There is simply no other logical explanation for their behaviors and ideals, I mean none whatsoever. Here's my argument: "You take a set (two, usually a boy and a girl) of teens, however different their lifestyles are from one another and place them in the same home for a week, and presto, they completely alter their entire thought process when it comes to common courtesy and motivations? I think not. Now granted, these kids, or lab rats, even made my blood boil a bit at first just by listening to how they rejected the values set in place by their temporary parents by blatantly defying every rule and regulation concerning their new home's lifestyle with sarcasm, disrespect and vulgarities, some even resorted to threats and one younger male even left and went back home; but all in all, every single case was a success. Point being, two kids who were total misfits in their own homes were removed from their original lodgings and placed with parents who didn't put up with their antics and in the end, you had some pretty good kids considering the circumstances. All it took were a set of parents that actually thought about a course of action involving things like discipline, encouragement, caring and just some good old fashion follow-through. No physical contact was involved, no one whipped out the belt, they just sat the kids down and talked, and more importantly, they listened when they needed to, and stood firm when they should have. There was no compromising when it came to right and wrong, and there was no ridiculing and blame-casting when the parental figures became upset and could have very well took the route that the biological parents would normally have and acted like a selfish child then given up.

Thank you CMT, even though I'm sure the intentions of this latest addition to your line up was developed to show how bad kids are these days, in the end all you accomplished was to prove how parents are becoming lazier, less self-accountable and more irresponsible than ever.

So for all you older residents of society that enjoy starting conversations with phrases like: "Back in my day, kids were blah blah blah...," just remember, the parenting was just as different back then as well.