This is an interesting thread. I noticed that people my age and down seem to have gotten very strangely treated as children...very different from my parents' generation (I'm 26). I certainly would have had my tail pulled (and how!) for swiping candy as a child, but I had friends who certainly would not have recieved the same treatment. I baby sit for a friend of mine, children are 6 and 2. The six year old I absolutely cannot deal with sometimes, because she's been treated with such kid gloves her entire life. She likes me, but can't stand me at the same time because I don't put up with her nonsense. I often find myself explaining the "why's" with "because I'm an adult. And when you're an adult you get to decide", and "because it sometimes stinks to be a kid!!", both of which make me feel very, very old, and a lot like my father, who said similar things to me. My parents live in the suburban Boston area, where the priviliged children have become such a problem that many restaraunts and shops have a "no-kid" policy. Parents are outraged, but the rest of us feel relieved sometimes. These are strange times! I've been out of Joni-cyber-space for a while. Its nice to see these familar names again! Reuben in Philadelphia >>>Unfortunately, "perfect" children are too often planned for, and thought of as, an accessory of the successful life ... no more or less important, but every bit as necessary as the Nanny service you employ to raise the little darlings for you, the 4+ bedroom house 45 miles from work, the mammoth SUV to take you back and forth at 12 mpg, where you struggle to keep up with the upper-half-of-one-percent income club.<<<
