Monday, November 17, 2008

rabid pornography

Last week I read a letter to the Gulf News where a father had complained about the cost of quality car seats in the UAE. His wife had been sitting in the back of the car with the baby for about 8 months, while he drove around looking for a cheap but excellent car seat. Moron, as if that would exist. Pay up and shut up. The car seat should have been purchased before the baby was born. IDIOTS, IDIOTS.

I have seen 3 friends recently explore the dangers of teenagers on Facebook. One question I always want to ask them, is why, why oh why, did they allow these kids to roam around online, allowing all and sundry to view their faces and read all about them, when these same kids would never go to a shopping mall with a label hanging around their neck informing everyone of who they are and where they live and when they were born.....etc etc
Of these 3 friends, I can say that one of them had no idea what Facebook was and also very little knowledge of the internet. Not an ideal excuse, but she did not use car seats with her kids either.....
Friend no.2 was trying to allow her daughter the freedom that she cannot have in todays 'real' world. She really had no idea of the dangers (hmmm....or chose to hope it would never come her way).
Friend no.3 thinks that her daughter is an angel and is busy blaming her classmates for dragging her 'down'.

Whatfuckingever, Perhaps I am over-paranoid, but this is 2008, not 1968. Predators are everywhere. Rabid drivers to online child porn.

Today I had to tell a very nice lady that I am sorry, my daughter cannot come to her house to play with her child, since we do not know them. I am sure she thought I was bonkers, maybe I am, but better to be safe. My daughter will hate me, again. Whofuckingcares?

8 comments:

Ammaro said...

naive right?

but i guess each generation is tougher than the previous one, because of the stuff they go through... and im sure a lot of kids got screwed over through this whole myspace/facebook web2.0 revolution thing... oh well

rosh said...
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rosh said...

Am waiting to *grow up*, and eventually have kids, be aware of the dangers, lurkers an' all ..eh! But then again, each time am all grown up, there's never shortage of that weird crap which comes along - feels a step back in naivety. After many years in the "real" city, and a thousand CSI and Law & Order shows, thought I'd seen it all. Nope, apparently, there's more crap that erode into your innocence. To be quite honest, I find myself thinking, is "freedom" minus checks and balances, even if that means, infringing on people's rights, all that positive?

Lastly, whatever people have to say on life in the UAE these days (valid or otherwise) Am thankful for having an opportunity to grow up in a relatively safe society. Especially seeing 2nd gen cousins in the UK and NYC - many of whom have had to grow up fast dealing with friends go through teenage pregnancies, substance abuse and all that peer pressure BS.

Being a parent - not a tiny task. Develop your own rules and laws. You may not win the short term popularity contest, but you'd have heck of a job well done.

* said...

Yes, well. \I read that letter and I thought to myself what a condecending prick.
Whateverthefuck indeed. What kind of an arsehole waits nine months (in utero) and another 9 months (post delivery) to get a car seat.
I would love to remember which day that stupid letter came so I can send a scathing reply.
18 months for a car seat.
I shudder to think how much time he needs to plan a night of love!

As for the facebook thing. I have said and said till I went blue in th face, and I have suffered and learned my lesson.
However I do belive that there should be assistance from the poers that be, in monitoring prospective paedophiles, without having to fill in 20 reports with passport photocopies attached, and making such a big deal about it, that the already stressed out scared parent decided to cower away and keep silent.

rosh said...
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rosh said...

Jeez, missed the car seat story. Some folks, are well below par on mental acumen. Am not sure who's the bigger imbecile - those driving around without car seats or those with fitted seats, yet prefer kids on front seats!

Jayne said...

He probably didn't get a carseat cos there wasn't one with a ready made plastic cover & his dry cleaning bag didn't fit nicely.......utter fuckwit.
Talking of such people, I noticed on Wednesday, 2 different cars being driven by imbiciles who had literally folded their windscreen sunshields in half, totally covering the passenger side of the windscreen. Nice hey, when they belt down the freeway at 160km & pull into the right hand lane without being able to see a sodding thing.............

rosh said...

Merry Christmas Chevy Gal!