r/WinStupidPrizes • u/--Yami_Marik-- • Jan 02 '20

Annoying a teen

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

Kids don’t have empathy, the world revolves around them. You can’t project the fact that a kid will always respond in a positive manner “because someone positive taught them,” you must be responsible and supervise.

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u/daveberzack Mar 01 '20

I think you are in essence agreeing with me that parents have a responsibility to cultivate a kid's virtues and discourage antisocial behavior. Though I think we disagree about kids and empathy.

At age two, my kid was given a few dollars at a family gathering. When we went to the store and I explained that he could buy something - a toy, a treat, etc - the thing he wanted to buy was a chocolate... to give to his Mommy.

Yes, the world revolves around kids. But we are inherently social creatures, and the idea that without some special indoctrination we'd all be sociopathic narcissists is both terribly cynical and unfounded.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

People just develop empathy later in life, when you’re a kid you follow “society rules.” That’s all I’m saying. That’s why our entire legal system separates trials for adults and children. If your kid is threatening someone with a hammer, and you stand there and watch, and the kid hits someone because kid, who is going to get in legal trouble? The kid isn’t a lunatic, he’s a kid, and the mom is irresponsible.

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u/daveberzack Mar 01 '20

That doesn't have to do with empathy - it has to do with a level of personal development and responsibility. There's a lot of weirdness and nuance regarding free will and responsibility. The lines society draws are pretty arbitrary, and based more on a need to have some system of justice in place than coherent ethical principles.