Remind me again why parents think they're so necessary. We could all survive without them. Give us an hour or so to realize that, hey, having nothing to do and no responsibility is that fun, and we'll start to create responsibilities for ourselves. But the hovering that comes through the generations of parents getting more and more paranoid belies the fact that kids can function on their own. Now, I'm not talking kids as in, the 5-10 age group. Yeah, they know what's going on, and what they have to do, but that means nothing to the parents. I'm talking the group 10 and up, who get more and more pressure as the years, no, days, go by to be perfect, to beat out this kid and that kid for this college or that job. Is that really the environment that we want to create?

We're just teaching kids that being competitive is what life is all about. But what's that mantra I get over and over again after that inevitable fight with the siblings? "Not everything's a competition". Hate to break it too you, Mom and Dad, but that's the way that you raised us. Learn to accept what you've created with the things that you instilled from birth, and let them grow into what THEY want. Not what you wished you could have been and are now pushing them to become. I'm not going to be the person I am right now for the rest of my life. Why do you think It's called 'going away to college'? There's a reason for that. We need to leave you hovering noradic people with nothing better to do in life than to dictate what your kids become. This person is going to be at that party? Oh, well, I don't like their morals, so guess who's staying home Saturday night? Yup, that's me, and let me tell you, It's sure as hell not by choice.

But wait! There's a group getting together at so-and-so's house. Small gathering, yea, just the close group. But no, the parents aren't going to be home. Oops, that comment just told the parent's that you're lying, whether you're telling the truth or not. Thank you, Police Department and Drug Facilities, for making sure that parent's think that every kid over the age of 13 will lie to go out. Some of us still have morals, you know! The kids who go out and get high every weekend, hell, every night, and sometimes during the day? Those are the kids who resent things, are ticked off at parents perpetually, and who just want to rebel the bad way. Well, you want to keep drugs out of high school? I'll tell you the best method. STOP TELLING PARENTS THAT THEIR KID IS A LYING, THEIVING, DRUG ADDICT!! Because some of us wouldn't touch that for the world. Lot's of people wouldn't touch that for the world. But then you go and cause strife within the home, and fighting matches resume, and all of a sudden that kids out smoking on the street corner. Because.. wait for it…. They think that they're parents don't give a damn, because all they do is interrogate them over innocent little things. Just because all you see is that bad kids, doesn't mean that all you see is all there is.

That's my scope on things today! Laurie Spraw.

"So It goes" Kurt Vonnegut.