Senior prank day......

[Anonymous Poster]

That's the way I remember it. Everybody I knew had at least one gun in Texas. Even if it was just an old relic handed down from generation to generation and was no longer used. It was still mounted over the door or the fireplace.

One thing I miss about Texas was the rifle racks. Everybody had rifle racks in the back windows of their pickups. In case a cow needed to be put down, or a mercy killing of a mangled deer/dog needed to be performed at the side of the highway. It was not uncommon in rural areas to drive down the highway and see a man in firing stance putting a wounded animal out of it's misery.

My grandmother, visiting from Ohio, was alarmed. Said she felt like she was in the middle of the civil war, drawing attention to something that to me had long since gone unoticed and unremarked upon. It didn't worry me. For some reason it reassured me. I guess it's because it was what I was used to. Everybody I knew owned guns and used them apporpriately. Kids were trained to use them safely for appropriate purposes, such as hunting or some of the above mentioned uses.

 

[motelman]

I started reading your post yesterday morning and then had to take care of other things, but something was bothering me /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif. It took a while but it finally came to me, What gives you the right to think you can talk to and have a trusting relationship with your childern?? /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
Don't you know you're not supposed to do that?? The little buggers are suposed to be affraid to discus things with you for fear of being judged and ridiculed, they should be sneaking around and doing whatever they do in secret so some day you could say I never thought they were human!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
That's enough of the sarcasm, I think it's great that your kids feel they can talk to you as a parent, friend, and confidant!!
I feel that one of the biggest down falls today is the lack of communication within the familly.
My oldest daughter was the co-valadictorian of her class, was in several sports, holds several school records for her physical abilities, and loved to TP her friends homes. I new she was doing this and it wasn't a problem, it was part of being involved in sports in the home town. Our place was not TPed, obviously because she was part of the TP crew, until the night before her graduation party. I, like most nights, was up late and saw them when they were just starting. I woke my wife and daughter up and we watched them doing their work.
I was going to go and scare the s**t out of them, but my daughter told me not too, she felt it was just her turn and it was an honor and privelage. There were some, like my mother-in-law that were not impressed with the toilet paper hanging from the trees, but we had a good time telling her friends about watching them do their work, and we all survived to TP another day.
The ****** and Stalin era of parenting has past and I don't feel it ever did work. How many of you or your children ever drank while under age? How many of you went places you shouldn't have gone? I know I did and nothing was going to stop me. As you get older and have kids to think about it makes you wonder about changing your aproach. We felt it was better to strongly urge them not to drink, but if you do you have 2 choices: 1. stay where you are for the night and we will deal with it in the morning. 2. call and one of us will come and get you and we will still deal with it in the morning, In either situation we will have the option of dealing with things in the morning, neither one happened more than a couple of times, but they knew the option was there and if they showed they were human and made a bad decision, we would be able to get through it together.
Again, I do feel you have made the right decision to be there for your childern and wish you luck in the future. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The ****** and Stalin era of parenting has past and I don't feel it ever did work )</font>

Your comparison of ****** and Stalin is an extreme unrealistic comparision,I believe in discipline/responsibility/accountability but in a fair way and loving way.My children/teenagers cannot do anything they want to,I think a lot of societys problems is the result of lack of respect/lack of morals and lack of accountability.True you cannot control every thing your children do,some things they learn from experience,you can not raise a child in a bubble either. You have to strike a balance.I do not believe a child should be allowed to run wild and do any thing they want.I do not want my children to be indulging in alcohol,that is something they can do when they are responsible adults and living on there own.But as long as they are at my home and I am paying their bills/raising them etc. I am going to try and stear them in the right direction,turning 200 chickens loose in a school gym is not something I would advocate,and I have chickens on my farm.
****** and Stalin were cruel people and had no love for no one but themselves,where as a caring parent will love there children more than they do themselves,the very least love them as much as they do themselves.I can talk to my children and have a good relationship with them. A parents job is to be a good loving accountable mature role model.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I understand what you're saying, I really do, but I don't think the comparison of a bunch of kids beating other kids half to death and smearing them with feces can in any way compare to my post either. I guess everything is relative and depends on your point of view.

I wonder why folks would assume that I let my daughter do anything she pleases because she wants to participate in the senior prank. She has never come home drunk, thinks smoking is for idiots, holds a job, has never gotten a ticket, suspended from school, been seen by the dean or the principal for any bad behavior. My son now, that's another story .... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Thirteen, knows everything. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[MDSteve]

For my seinor prank we put the school up for sale. We collected for sale signs from realtors for 2 weeks and on the day of graduation had them all lined up for a couple miles. The principal thought it was funny. We still had to collect and give the signs back. They year before we moved one of the large anchors that some schools have into the middle of football field. They left it out until after graduation. Most of the parents thought it was there on purpose.


I don't see anything wrong with pranks but I don't think the parents should be involved. That's why they are seinor pranks.

Steve

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Now that......is funny. Put the school up for sale. Our little newspaper here would probably run an ad for free as well...gotta talk to my daughter!

 

[Von]

One of our senior pranks was to put a car on the school roof! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif We used the body of a gutted out VW bettle! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif They just tied a rope to it and got a running start to get it off! was great fun to see it hit the ground! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Reminds me of the bicycle I got for my second birthday. Old Roland down street, big fourth grader was jealous as he could be. He tried to ride it and wouldn't fit, so he ran it up the flag pole at the grade school and turned it loose. It hit the ground and broke in two, right along with my wee little heart. My dad went down and saw Roland's dad and there was a bit of pushin' and shovin' and scufflin' and the next day I got a brand new pink bicycle. Things falling from high places still spark that memory. I don't know what happened to Roland but if there's any justice he's doing time in a bicycle prison somewhere. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

My dad was really young then and ya didn't want to engage his rage.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

A little TP'ing, some water balloons.

My daughter is a high school band director. The band just got back from their annual trip for a competition. They stayed in a hotel with balconies. Some of the kids had rooms above some of the others. There was a little TP dropped (and cleaned up, afterwards), and a few water balloons. The hotel had no complaints.

A couple of the guys had a video camera, and they were teasing the girls about lifting their shirts like in the "Girls Gone Wild" videos advertised on TV. A couple of the girls lifted their Tee-shirts - they had on bathing suits!

My daughter is strict. There are plenty of adult chaperones on the trip. Each night at curfew, the chaperones make sure everyone is in their rooms, then actually tape the doors from the outside. If anyone tried to roam, they would be caught. She enforces the same rule that was in effect when she was a band student, "NPC", No Physical Contact while on the trip - even when boy/girlfriends are both in the band. The kids respect it and don't even hold hands while they are representing their school.

So, someone told someone else about the girl's lifting their shirts (which was a joke), and someone told the school superintendent, and there is now a school board investigation of my daughter's morals and leadership. The kids who were involved have been threatened with expulsion. When the kids were called to the office, they thought they were in trouble for the TP, so they were truthful about it, and are now being threatened with suspension for vandalism (Did I say they cleaned it up? Without being told?).

By the way, several girls were named even though they weren't involved. All of the kids who were involved in any way are school leaders and outstanding students.

I told my daughter that an investigation, if done properly, would be the best thing that ever happened to her. I only hope I'm right. Fortunately, several of the parents are up in arms - because their kids were named (and the names were leaked whether they were involved or not); and because their kids are being threatened with suspension and expulsion for being kids! The parents of 2 of the kids were among the chaperones!

I was a chaperone during my daughter's last band trip to Texas as a high school student; she dropped a water balloon on me. I had no choice. In less than an hour, I dropped one on her. She's now 34 and I'm 62; we still laugh about it.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Kids are going to have their fun. If it's at all up to me, I'd a lot rather they did it that way than some of the other ways they might come up with. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif