GOT BRAINS?

I love the Dr. Phil Show! This is a man after my own no-nonsense heart, and one of the few talk shows that actually offers common sense.

Today, I saw a program about teenage girls posting drunken photos of themselves on Facebook. Yes, I said "teenage girls"...as in not of legal age to drink at all, much less get ****faced and pass out hugging the porcelain god, puking, lying all over public bathroom floors (yuck!!), lying in hotel room hallways passed out while "friends" write all over their partially clad bodies with Sharpie pens....things like "**** me"..and then take photos which, with the girl's approval are then posted on their Facebook pages. Real nice.

One young girl who is only 17 stated that she was not ashamed of anything she's done....well, that's sad, isn't it? Worst of all, her mother was sitting in the audience and when Dr. Phil asked her what she thought of her daughter getting drunk "every weekend" (don't forget, the kid is only 17!)and posting these pictures on Facebook, her response was that her daughter has ADD and is a "risk-taker" and other such psychobabble. The mother had a stupid smile on her face, like it was all just fine.....like "isn't she cute". The girl sat right up there on the stage and told everyone that she's been drinking since she was 14! And then, her defense of her behavior was that she thought girls ought to have the same "rights" as guys....."guys can post these types of pictures on the Internet, so why shouldn't girls?" uh....what?

Dr. Phil tried to make her understand that putting it all out there on the web for everyone to see will affect her future in so many ways...like someday when she hopefully grows up and she goes to apply for a corporate job and her prospective employer goes to Facebook or YouTube or MySpace and finds these pictures and won't hire her because of them. She couldn't understand why that would matter to an employer. There was a man in the audience from a large corporation who explained to her that employers do background checks on people which include looking them up on these websites.(Her childish response was that if an employer wouldn't hire her because of that, then she wouldn't want to work for them anyway. Tell me that again when you grow up and really WANT a particular job and are turned down because of your stupidity.)

As an owner of a business, I can tell you that I do background checks and check out these websites, too. I have the right and the obligation to find out all I can about someone who will be working for me because these people will be in our client's homes with the client's personal property and maybe their children.

The girl's attitude was that it shouldn't matter what she does in her private life as long as she does her job. She didn't get the fact that if you are getting drunk at age 17 and posting pictures of yourself doing stupid things, an employer will see you as immoral, stupid, lacking in common sense and judgement, and unreliable. What employer wants someone like that representing their company? I sure don't!

But, most disturbing to me was the blase attitude of this girl's mother! This child obviously has a serious problem with alcohol; hello....she's been drinking since she was 14 years old. She's putting herself at risk every time she gets drunk and passes out somewhere. Risk of rape, STDs, alcohol poisoning, abduction, being drugged, and death, just to name a few. Where in the name of God are this mother's brains? What is she thinking? Why isn't she cracking down hard on this kid instead of ignoring the problem? Is it just too much trouble to pounce on her daughter and get her straightened out, no matter what it takes? Her first response to these pictures should have been to yank the computer away from the kid! She would have to earn it back and then would only be able to use it with supervision. She would not have a cell phone or phone privileges of any kind and she would be on house confinement for a very long time! And she definitely would not be allowed to associate with her so-called friends with whom she shares this behavior. The alcohol problem would have to seriously be addressed and if the kid needs to go into a treatment facility, then that's what must be done.
And who, by the way, is buying the alchohol for this girl and her friends every weekend so they can get drunk? If I were that mother, I'd be finding out the answer to that question and prosecuting whoever it is immediately.

See, this is what I mean when I say parents have no common sense anymore.

Personally, I believe that it is a form of child abuse to allow your child to behave like this young woman without any form of consequences and no attempt to stop her from doing permanant damage to herself. She's too young to realize the long-term effects of her behavior...and, it is a fact that a person's emotional development is arrested at the age at which they become an addict....so, this girl is functioning at a 14 year old age level. How much judgement do you have at that age?

It saddens me to see the garbage posted on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube....these kids think all this is funny and cool now, but they will pay dearly later...and the parents are just looking on as if they have no options.

Wake up, parents, and grow a brain...and some courage to control your kids, for godsakes! Their future depends on you.