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[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

It'd be a good start to tell these soccer moms to get lives, and allow their children to live their own a bit. Almost every decently well off suburban family I know has a kid who's at a minimum been evaluated for some syndrome/complex/ADHD-type-thing. The minute the kid doesn't fit exactly into some cookie cutter mold some shmuck academic or administrator (who's never raised kids) deems non-conformist, or outside the way kids are supposed to learn, he or she is defective. We've a nice Brave New World going on because of these ridiculous women and the industry of snake oil salesmen who see a market of fools, and sell them on the fact their kids could all get into Yale and graduate as valedictorian if they just took these pills, or enrolled in this therapy.

I'm not suggesting moms shouldn't be on the lookout for mental illness when a kid is openly violent. I'm just suggesting they should also be aware of their own mental illness: The delusion they can remove all risk from their children's lives and make them perfect. This idiocy is a lot of what's wrong with people today. Raise a kid to think everything can be managed and you'll raise a neurotic fool. Exhibit A: The endless parade of poor bastards we've all known in law firms who can't stand on their own two feet after being fired. The minute things go off script, these over-coddled people are meat on the street.

We're raising weak, overly-directed kids who have no coping skills. Yeah, this is a bit off topic. Yeah, it's a rant. But any time I hear a "soccer mom" spout off, I can't help but think what a cancer on society these people have become.

Man, there's a boatload of bitterness there. Everything going okay with the wife and kids?