Good Parenting?

I am of the firm opinion that modern parents between the ages of 30-50 years old have totaly lost all perspective as it regards good parenting. I appreciate that they have a hard row to hoe b/c they have to grow confident not rude, polite but not broken children. It is a balancing act trying to keep some of what your mother's and grandmother's generations utilized and introducing some of the modern practices.

Who Determines the Child's Diet
For example I am of the view that to grow some belief in making choices that a child can decide within reason what they will have for dinner. But the child dictating their entire diet and nutritional intake is something else altogether. I have seen parents who give their child only what they like to eat for meals; not a vegetable in sight. Sometimes no protien source except maybe for cheese and milk.

Respect For Authority and Adults?
How do parents attempt to grow respect for elders and not the attitude that the adult is always right? I see often kids ignoring requests or directives from their own parents muchless other adults.

Typical Scenario: Seven year old girl watching tv, Mummy calls out to kid "Can you please bring me the broom?"...Kid does not answer, does not even indicated she hears..not a movement in any muscle in response to her mother's request.

Mother calls out louder this time...asking if the kid had not heard her...kid responds "I am coming" and is just getting up but pausing to watch a few more seconds before she does anything about meeting her mother's request. Most times the mother comes, gets whatever it was she wanted, asking the child for the third or fourth time: "Didn't you hear me?"

Mind you this is not a one-of situation it happens all the time. Now if the child pays no attention to her mother's requests and directive can you imagine how she is at school, sunday school or girl scouts?

Responsibility through Chore
Another area I see most modern parenting having much trouble, is with getting their kids to do any chores regularly and properly. Kids refuse to clean their rooms and they don't have to do regular chores like we did growing up. When I was a kid I woke every morning knowing what I was supposed to do around the house and as I grew older the chores became more difficult etc.

Today most kids do nothing at home. Not even picking up their place mats from the table after a meal. They have maids to do that or an overworked mother who tries to keep-up with getting it all done herself but failing miserably.

From my observations of modern parents, I feel they have high ideals about the kind of parents they should be but there appears a hugh gulf between those ideals and practice. There has to be more effort put into marrying the old and good with the modern and improved parenting techniques. Most importantly though parents must be willing to use consistently the married parenting techniques.

Many parents in the West Indies I feel are exhibiting characteristics of the guilty parent b/c they spend so much time away from their children while working. Others have thrown out the old ways entirely because the hated the discipline they received as children. Unfortunately they have replaced it with nothing or with something they don't really have a handle on.