So in this post I’ll be talking about two parents whose actions are either bad or at least debatable. I’ll let you guys decide.

First, a 38 year-old Georgian women has been arrested by police. The authorities say that she forced her 12 year-old son to kill his pet hamster with a hammer as punishment for earning a bad grade. Lynn Middlebrooks Geter is facing one charge each of animal cruelty, child cruelty and battery.

Now I don’t know about you, but not only is this a horrible parenting method it’s oddly reminiscent of the methods the Hitler Youth used. I’m not calling her a Nazi, just remarking on how awful this act really is.

My second story comes from Southern California where a parent complained about a certain entry in the dictionary and proceeded to have the Merriam-Webster’s 10th edition dictionary removed from 4th and 5th grade classrooms. The entry in question is “oral sex.” The parent claims that it is too graphic and should not be in a classroom. The move has its supporters and its critics and the ban in under review.

Personally I’m conflicted about this one. Yes it’s banning a DICTIONARY, but at the same time, that entry probably doesn’t need to be there. On the other hand, anyone can look it up on the internet and the way our culture is, I doubt that these kids haven’t heard the words before. The other thing that makes me question this decision is the fact that there are thousands of words in the dictionary and the odds that a kid will randomly find this one is very low. So what do you think about this story? Let me know in the comments.

Story of Georgia lady: http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/latest/lat_704746.shtml?v=0543

Story of Dictionary banning: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/25/oral-sex-dictionary-ban-us-schools?DSF