Doesn't help either that every show on nightime tv has gun shootups up the whazoo ,
To me that says more about poor parenting than it does about nighttime TV. When I was a kid my parents didn't allow me to watch some TV shows. They weren't over protective, I watched tons of cowboy shows where the good guys won and the bad guys got punished, or dead. I also was allowed to watch war movies the Three Stooges and what is today called Film Noire movies with actors like Cagney, Edward G Robinson and Bogart as gangsters and detectives. The difference is that my parents always told me right from wrong and set a good example in their personal lives. We ate dinner together at the dining table in the evening while Mom and Dad discussed what had occurred during their work days and we listened as they related how they resolved their problems with co workers and others. There were a lot of good indirect lessons learned right at the dinner table. Even though my dad worked a regular day job and lots of side jobs, limiting his time at home, and Mom worked once I was in my early teens, both
made the time to actually parent, watch who I hung around with and filter out who they thought was a bad influence. I had a good foundation because they did good parenting when I was in my youngest formative years so once I got into my teens I already knew how to choose my friends wisely. I wasn't a perfect kid, like all kids I did some stuff I'm not proud of today, but it was minor. I never had the urge to get my rifle and go to school and shoot everyone. I didn't have anger issues because my parents didn't do their job of good parenting.
I didn't mean this to turn into a biography, the point is that my parents did their job ad did it well regardless of how tired they were or how tight finances were. I was blessed to have both parents set an example, work together to guide and dole out punishment. Punishment when it came was swift and severe, at least in the minds of us kids. We got the hand, belt, flyswatter and yardstick depending upon what was close at hand, but it wasn't pain that we learned from, it was fear of pain. I can't ever remember a mark being left on my body. We were also denied things we wanted to do for less severe offenses and there was no relenting on the punishment. If it was no TV for a week that meant a week no matter how much we promised to not offend again and the denials weren't limited to TV. It might be no play after school, no weekends spending time with friends for a month. We didn't get allowances and we had chores, responsibilities, which we were expected to take care of. Once we were of a certain age if we wanted spending money we worked for it. We might get fruit from my Grandfather and go around the neighborhood selling it, or we might sell greeting cards and as we got older mow lawns or deliver an afternoon newspaper. When we wanted a car my parents put up the money for a used car, but we had to have a job and pay it back. These things instilled a sense of personal responsibility and the knowledge that whatever we did there was a consequence, good or bad.
Most young people today lack parents who parent like mine did. Many have only one parent, even when they have two, parents today would rather give their kid everything than do the hard work of listening to them whine. There is no expectation of personal responsibility or an offspring earning something. Too many parents succumb to their offspring's words of "well so and so down the street doesn't have to do that" or "my friend's parents gave him one". My parents told me that if it was so much better living down the street to go live there. Most other parents told their kids the same thing. I don't know any kid who actually left home to go live elsewhere because they would get stuff without some responsibility. In short, too many parents today don't accept their responsibility to do the hard work of being parents. Their kids are more of an inconvenience when they need guidance so parents buy them a cell phone or a video game to shut them up.
