Looks Can Be Deceiving

I've been criticized frequently for my belief that there are no bad children, only bad parents. I'm sticking by my guns, though. Each case that I observe seems to point back to the parents every time. I'm sure there may be others where the parents are not to blame, but no one has pointed any out yet.

We know a family that appeared to be the typical, everyday working American family. All their kids appeared to be normal, as they participated in sports and other activities. I will add that the parents were very conservative and evangelical to a point but this appeared to be a perfect family.

When these youngsters reached their late teens, you could see the changes coming. Without going into details, all of the kids turned to heavy alcohol and even drug use. None ever was successful in a relationship (so far) and have been married and living with many different mates. And their career success is mixed, at best, and that's being kind.

We'll never know what went on inside the four walls of this All-American, conservative, religious family. But I can assume from what I've seen as the results, there was much more than met the eye. I wish there could be an actual case study done of how such a seemingly normal family could produce results in ALL of their kids like they did. You can't tell me everything was "normal".

This was not a matter of maintaining control of your children. This father always had control of his. They were not bad children, in public at least. But once they left the confines of that home they did a 180 and have been the worst examples of human being for the 20 years since.

Looks can be deceiving. Sometimes the impressions we get from people and their families must be entirely different from the truth. Maybe it's the multiple personalities that families have taken on in order to be accepted within the societies in which they want to be a part.

Good luck with that.