Another Shooting, This Time at ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in Connecticut....

[ZahZoo]

"I'm your parent, and I love you, but I'm not your friend." Something my kids hear a lot.

I can only hope your interaction with your children contains more depth than this statement. The dynamics of friendship can be broad and run from very shallow acquaintances to deep inner-personal relationships.

The intricacies of a healthy parent/child relationship has many elements and vary widely even between one kid to the next. We're all unique individuals as are our kids.

The core component of any functional relationship is communication and a good parent should engage on many levels... at times authoritarian when it's needed. At times discussing feelings towards events/incidents... 2-way interaction. There are perfectly good times to sit down and play together... especially at younger ages. This develops a firm foundation when parenting becomes a real challenge...

Teenagers and early adult ages is a real critical time in their development. It's also one of the most challenging to engage from a parental perspective because they are growing into their own independently thinking person. It's a real balancing act in allowing them to experience freedom, make choices, understand consequences and know when to reel them back in for their own good. If you didn't develop solid communication and trust when they were younger than you're most likely going to experience total hell when they reach 15/16. Point is you better have some element of "friendship" or at least the basic trust and communication avenues to engage them as young adults because I can guarantee you... going hard ass authoritative on them isn't going to get through to them no matter how tough you choose to be.

[BigBadBrian]

The very thought of you reproducing yourself makes my skin crawl.

STFU, skank!

[BigBadBrian]

I can only hope your interaction with your children contains more depth than this statement.

Uh...Uh...I can't even believe you typed that statement.

[ZahZoo]

Reading a bit on the subject... there's been stories on the mother and the murderer. Clearly there's some red flags and concerns with her managing whatever this jackass's issues were and obviously her choices in owning and possessing numerous lethal firearms and ammo...

Not much has been reported on the father and older brother... only that they've been estranged from the murderer for a few years. Did he just bail on them and left the mother to handle whatever was going on with the murderer..?

I can understand why they are hiding in shame... but suspect they are part of explaining this mess...

[ZahZoo]

Uh...Uh...I can't even believe you typed that statement.

Well then engage in the discussion... don't just go seagull on it... fly in, crap some, make some noise and fly off...

[ELVIS]

Not much has been reported on the father and older brother... only that they've been estranged from the murderer for a few years. Did he just bail on them and left the mother to handle whatever was going on with the murderer..?

I can understand why they are hiding in shame... but suspect they are part of explaining this mess...

Thats an interesting point...

[ELVIS]

Well then engage in the discussion... don't just go seagull on it... fly in, crap some, make some noise and fly off...

Like telling your kid you're not their friend...

That should help them sleep well at night...

[jhale667]

"I'm your parent, and I love you, but when you grow up you'll realize I'm insane." Something my kids hear a lot.

Along with "your dad is a douche", no doubt...

[BigBadBrian]

Along with "your dad is a douche", no doubt...

I didn't know your dad was a douche. That explains a lot, that and the fact that you were in-bred.

[jhale667]

No, that'd be you, Cletus.

[BigBadBrian]

Oooh, good comeback! :sarcasm:

[jhale667]

[Nickdfresh]

"I'm your parent, and I love you, but I'm not your friend." Something my kids hear a lot.

"You're Goddamned right!" is something you hear back a lot.

[Kristy]

Reading a bit on the subject... there's been stories on the mother and the murderer. Clearly there's some red flags and concerns with her managing whatever this jackass's issues were and obviously her choices in owning and possessing numerous lethal firearms and ammo...

Not much has been reported on the father and older brother... only that they've been estranged from the murderer for a few years. Did he just bail on them and left the mother to handle whatever was going on with the murderer..?

I can understand why they are hiding in shame... but suspect they are part of explaining this mess...

As far as it has been reported she was a Glenn Beck-ish disciple and highly paranoid apocalyptic nutcase who felt an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons was somehow going to save her from a heard of oncoming Mayan brain eating zombies. Ironic indeed. Apparently, she was well-to-do receiving an average of $290,000 in alimony payments and lived in a mega-square foot house that was entirely paid for. Who knew how much in the way of outside social contact she had with her neighbors and community or what her true beliefs were when feeding her paranoia to her allegedly autistic son. To me, it wasn't so much about the guns but the anger her mother must have had at...somebody (the school?) that her son picked up on and believed to be his own problems as well. This is where your development comes in...who knew what was going on inside his head to take action on a school of elementary children he had no interaction with.

I think his mother programed (for lack of a better word) a lot of this paranoid hate in him. In a lot of parent/child relationships the parent isn't happy unless their child thinks like they do or is as miserable as they are. And if the rumors about this kid are true that he had trouble functioning in social situations (like many of you on here) apart from your average attention-seeking Tumblr posting goth kid, and his alleged whacky mother was he only view on the world, he was a powder keg waiting to go off.

[Kristy]

"You're Goddamned right!" is something you hear back a lot.

Except in the case of your "enemy" (that you seem to be spending a lot of time blowing each other these days) it's more of "I want to see the results of the DNA test."