Huh?

Hannah Montana is a just another Disney product pushed onto kids. Parents are responsible for saying “NO.”

“You could get them cleared up with a parent’s note,” she told me, sounding like a recording.

We live in a town where you can virtually hear the roar of parental heli-blades hovering over the heads of most of our high schoolers.

“No, thanks,” I said. “He needs to learn to be on time.”

She was silent for a long minute. “I’m 100% supportive of that decision,” she said, and her voice rang with conviction.

It’s tough when your peers take moral shortcuts right and left to help their teens “succeed.” We need to remember that suffering and failure can be phenomenal teachers. One great task of parents of young adults is to stand beside them when they’re in pain. And then cheer like crazy when they decide to totter back on the playing field, hopefully equipped with a bit more wisdom and strength.

This “creeping tendency to do what’s best for your kids regardless of the consequences”, certainly does seem to be a trend on the rise. Every summer we see more and more stories of parents assaulting their children’s coaches after a losing game.

And now, here are two mothers, willing to lie, cheat and bully other children for the benefit of their own. It’s like the “nurture/protect” instinct suddenly got amped up to a whole new bizarre level. When did that happen?

This behavior also pops up in the “My Sweet 16″/”Daddy’s Spoiled Little Girl” type of reality shows that feature parents spending exorbitant amounts of cash on parties, clothing luxury cars, and even houses to pacify their rotten, self-absorbed off-spring.

There’s a fine line in the parent-teacher-child triangle, and while it’s important that a parent be allowed to step in when their child is being neglected or mishandled, it’s equally important that a teacher be allowed to teach unobstructed.

I’ve seen nutso parents harass teachers – and they don’t care what school policy is, only that their child’s bubble of protection from failure, difficulty, and reality is maintained.

Should be interesting when these parents are harassing the parents that are harassing their precious child who is now a teacher.

I doubt it was the six year old’s idea. Doesn’t seem like the kind of thing a six year old would come up with. I think it was the mother’s idea.