Whacked Out Parents

      Up here in Northern Minnesota we have thick woods that go on for miles and miles.  Although on a map it might look like we are dotted with towns, and crisscrossed with highways, county roads, township roads and something called minimum maintenance roads, there's a lot of woods in between.  Those woods are teeming with wildlife.  There are the mostly mild and unoffensive animals, such as squirrels (although they do like to scold you), rabbits, deer, beaver, muskrats, and the like.  There are the offensive, like the skunk (although I seriously only see skunks in towns and near other areas of human habitation).  We also have the carnivores and other animals that the average Citiot looks at in total fear (Citiots = our term for those who live in the Twin Cities and think that meat is made in factories and comes only in plastic wrapped packages - to be fair, there are sensible people who live there too, but my brain explains this as that they are just living in the wrong place).  
      The truth is that we have almost no animals here that one needs to fear.  We have no poisonous snakes or spiders (we're even too far north by about a hundred or so miles for the brown recluse).  You can scare off a pack of wolves just by running at them and yelling.  I've broken up their hunting parties several times doing this (I even did that once in just a pair of Sorrels and my underwear - it must have been a frightening sight.  Fishers and Martens are too small to play ferocious with a human.  Badgers stay away.  A cougar can be scared off by determinedly stomping right at it (if I would have found a hefty stick or something lying on the ground on my way to where it it was growling with ears flattened it probably wouldn't have waited till I was only about twelve steps away before it bolted and ran).  When were kids (11 and 13) my brother and I were chased around by an angry bull moose, but it was in a bad mood because he was rubbing the felt off of his antlers.  That's got to be painful.  On the other hand one of my dad's cousins lassoed and then tamed a moose, so really they're just pussycats with an occasional fit of rage (yes, that's for real, and one day I might post that story here).  
      The only animal one needs fear is a she bear with cubs.  Mama will vigorously attack anyone or thing that she with her micro-brain thinks might be a danger to her little babies.  They would kill to protect their young.  

      That's actually true for a lot of species, including humans.  There have been many stories lately, though, where mothers (human) have gone too far, or were protecting more than just their child's life.  Most recently is the story of the woman who disguised herself as a kid and took a test in school for her daughter.  She got caught (maybe the giveaway was wearing a Walkman playing Guns n Roses instead of an Ipod with hip hop - who knows?)  She might have argued that by taking a test for her daughter she was indeed protecting her daughter's life - but seriously?  Get real.  

      This idea of taking mothering too far is not a new or isolated problem.  It's actually part of a disturbing trend or even an epidemic.  There are numerous reports of mothers not leaving off their screaming fits toward their children's authority figures in high school, but carrying this on into their kids' young adult lives - and beyond.  They don't just demand that their kid's high school grades be changed or that a certain teacher
gets fired for "teaching too strict."  They go into the colleges now and do the same thing.  They demand from coaches that their inadequate young 'un become the member of a college level sports team.  They demand the dismissal or at least the suspension of the officers who arrested their little angel who had a beer (or Bacardi bottle, crack stash, Mad Dog, or whatever) in her hand when the party she was at got busted - claiming everything from "she was just holding it for a friend" (she must have been just holding her friend's B.A level of 2.8 too) to "the evidence was planted."  

      There are numerous stories also of moms going on after that to her kid's work place and demanding raises, more "cooperation" from their supervisor, promotions, and so forth.  If their little darlings get fired for any reason  - look out!  Get the Richter Scale ready, because the ground will shake. 
      Moms have even come to the threshold of murdering their child's rivals.  There was that one woman in the news just a couple of years ago who created a Facebook account to provoke and pick on her daughter's rival for a position on the cheer leading squad.  She picked, pecked, harassed, and humiliated the rival, and didn't stop until the poor girl finally gave up and committed suicide.  Her daughter was able to get on the squad, with her rival out of the way.  Really that was murder, but the courts didn't see it that way.  She was found guilty, but not for murder.  It was for harassment or some other lame crap.  Mom, if you want your kid on the team, teach her to diligently practice, so that she doesn't suck. Dads have done their share to be guilty of this kind of stuff too.  
      So moms and dads, learn when to leave your kids alone.  Get help.  With all your heart you might think you are helping your children, but the reality is that you are hurting them in far worse ways than you can imagine.