We are living in a time of crisis. I’ve seen and heard some things this week that make you shake your head. Kids dropping F-Bombs on their parents who were in the process of disciplining them! Kids disrespecting the very people who brought them into this world! Parents nowadays are afraid of their kids! Parents don’t raise their own kids, or don’t raise them the correct way, or parents try to negotiate with their kids. Parents need to remember that they pay the bills and until children start paying their own mortgages and bills in their own homes, the parents still make the rules and should be running things. More on this later, after some bangin’ dance music.Climbing to #1 is a former essential new tune, Born This Way, by Lady Gaga. Improving to #2 is Look At Me Now by Chris Brown featuring L’il Wayne and Busta Rhymes. Tumbling to #3 is Rihanna’s current hit, S&M.Walking by Mary Mary jumps to #4. Up into the #5 position is 6 Foot 7 Foot by L’il Wayne featuring Cory Gunz, still my favourite rap track. Falling to #6 is Higher, by Taio Cruz featuring Kylie Minogue and Travie McCoy.Jumping to #7 is a former essential hew dance hit, Judas by Lady Gaga, which kicks. Up to # 8 is Just Can’t Get Enough by the Black Eyed Peas. Slipping to #9 is ET by Katy Perry featuring Kanye West.On the way up at #10 is Till The World Ends by Brittney Spears. Tumbling to #11 is Moment For Life by Nicki Minaj. Improving to #12 is Beautiful People by Chris Brown featuring Benny Benassi.Now some dance music and DJLT’s favourite song for the summer so far. Advancing to #13 is Give Me Everything by Pitbull, Neo, AfroJack & Nayer. Improving to #14 is Taio Cruz’s current hit I’m Loving You Tonight.Falling to 15 is Who’s that Chick?, by David Guetta featuring Rihanna. Improving to #16 it’s Motivation by Kelly Rowland featuring L’il Wayne, which has raced up the industry’s pop and hip hop music charts.Tumbling to #17 is Memories, by David Guetta featuring Kid Cudi. Up to #18 is Far Away by Marsha Ambrosious, a sweet love song, rare in this day and age of foul language embedded into pop music. Falling to # 19 is Hold It Against Me by Brittney Spears and fighting off elimination at #20 is On The Floor by Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull.Now back to this week’s topic the lack of discipline and standards with which so many parents are raising their kids!I was having an exchange with some peers earlier this week and we realised that we are responsible for many of the problems the society is currently facing. Let me explain.My peer group is the people between the ages of 40 and 55. So anybody who is that old and has kids can be considered as my contemporaries. Most of the problem children in Bermuda are under the age of 30! Sure you have the older guys who are doing a pack of nonsense even in their 30s and 40s it is unlikely that my peer group are the parents of these people. However, when we looked at the majority of the troublemakers on the rock we concluded that we went to school with the parents of these young people, we were at the same parties as the parents of the troublesome youths of today, and the parents of these menaces to society are in our age group-peer group.I’m now taking that further and admitting that my generation has failed Bermuda by raising a generation of mostly spoiled kids who are lazy, have a poor work ethic, a sense of entitlement. They don’t want to work, they expect the Government, their parents or someone else to give them everything, they are disrespectful to their parents, adults and other people in general and they just have what old timers used to call ‘no go to and no come from’.How did this happen? Many people in my peer group thought their parents were too hard on them. So they went easy on their kids and the results are what we have today. How and why would we stray from a system and a method that has served mankind so well for thousands of years? Who the heck did we think we were? Who gave us the right to change the plan? Nobody! So it’s our fault. Our parents gave us the example. They didn’t have lots of money but they gave us the basics, the necessities a roof over our heads, food to eat, clothes, their time, their talent, our history, our heritage, our culture and most importantly an example of how to raise kids the right way.We forgot to use with our kids that old saying “I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it”. We strayed from this and decided to just give our kids everything we could afford, everything we wished we had been given when we were younger, and even everything we didn’t wish we would have been given.This was the wrong way to raise kids. By giving children everything without them having to earn it, they miss the message of ‘you must work hard for whatever you are going to have in life’.If anything comes to a person too easily, they do not appreciate it. Take my boy LeBron James for instance. A title is not coming easy for him. He tried it in Cleveland and had no help. He has tried it in Miami with more help and a championship has still eluded him. I am not one of his critics.To the contrary, I think people are being totally ridiculous about his whole situation and having two sets of rules one for the owners, the media and other players and another set of rules for him.If he ever wins a title, he will appreciate it more than someone who wins one in their first year or so in the league, without having to struggle and fight for it.So how can we fix this situation? Well, it’s never too late. Parents can simply say to their kids, “Look, I’ve kind of messed up in raising you but we’re gonna fix it.Starting now there will be standards and consequences in this house.”And parents must remind children that no matter how ineffective a parent they may have been, they are still parents and still have the right to parent their children.You never stop being a parent. The question is not so much how you start but how you finish. So even if you messed up, you can fix it.Here’s to better parenting. We may have to encourage people to take parenting classes, but all the answers to parenting are in that great book called the BIBLE.But my generation has gotten away from that too. Let’s get back to the Bible, to basics, disciplining our children, giving them tough love, not spoiling them but instead teaching them and raising them the right way. And don’t be afraid to ask for advice. Talk to older people. They’ve been there and done it many times before. Peace ... DJLT!