Responsibility for the proper conduct of children was not confined to their parents only. When they misbehaved, they misbehaved against the community. And a senior member of the community was expected to do something about it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It was not uncommon for the children to be told they were being treated this way because it was their bad karma and they must have hurt a child in a past life.
The reason why parents mistreat their children has less to do with character and temperament than with the fact that they were mistreated themselves and were not permitted to defend themselves.
As a newspaper reporter, I covered and was around a fair number of crime scenes involving juvenile delinquents, and few things bothered me more than listening to their parents. Crying, ranting, proclaiming how great their children were despite being kicked out of school or previous run-ins with the law.
Children need to trust and depend upon those who are responsible for them.
A parent being called to the school because their child had misbehaved was as serious as a parent being called to the police station because their child had robbed a bank.
Children are not a right, they are a privileged obligation.
Parents are supposed to instill a sense of right and wrong in their children and then keep up the due diligence necessary to make sure they don't veer off that path.
The problems of rebellious youth can be traced to homes where the mother disobeyed the father or showed lack of respect for his authority.
What's done to children, they will do to society.
If a child goes the wrong way, it is not the child who is to be blamed; it is the parents who are responsible.