"Santa Claws" <santa.claws@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:ms1smv47h049eeocodhrk9m4cssr77dafv@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >But I think that sort of goes to parodize the way that many parents
view
> >true discipline and respect in today's society - they see everything as
a
> >matter of "yelling and grounding will fix all", and as they carry that
> >philosophy in to their late teens, they actually act surprised it has
less
> >and less effect as they get older. For as stifling as Lois is, we're
> >supposed to assume that the screaming is largely the extent of it.
> >
>
> My brother got caught underage drinking. My parents yelled and
> grounded him. He learned not to get caught again.
>
> Yelling and grounding is dealing with the symptoms, not the problem. I
> don't know that Lois has the finesse to come up with a punishment that
> might actually teach a lesson. Except maybe when she gave everything
> the kids owned to charity; that was funny.
For that matter, I wonder if a lot of the writers are schooled enough on a
matter like this - and if they were, would most of the viewers get it.
Nothing against the writers, of course, but a lot in their demographic(s)
may have just grown up thinking that underage drinking is "no big deal".
And, getting to the root of the problem (peer pressure? stress?
curiosity?) may be a little bit more tolling on the emotions (or, perish
the
thought, "preachy") than they or the audience feel comfortable with.
> Somehow I figure Lois for having been an underage drinker in her time.
> Curiously we know a lot about Hal and Lois after they met, and a bunch
> about the relation****ps they subsequently had with their parents, but
> know almost nothing about life for them growing up.
>
> The upcoming episode 'Goodbye Kitty' has a listing in the cast for a
> 'teenage Lois', it would be really neat to see some background like
> that to her character. A neat perspective maybe, a week before they
> run the drinking show.
You're on to something. If we are to assume that Lois's treatment of the
boys is a mere extension of the way Ida treated her as a kid, then that
gives us more insight into Lois as a person - are the kids that way
because
of the way the parents treat them, or are the parents so evil because the
kids willfully are? We heard Lois say that her parents liked her sister
Susan best. Well, is that because they just didn't like Lois, or was Lois
honestly the worse child?
> Lois being a tyrant I don't figure having too much problem with
> hypocrisy, except in the mini-bike episode they actually used that to
> convince her to let them play on it before Reese screwed it up by
> breaking his leg. So I wonder that if she was the kind of kid that
> went underage drinking, she isn't going to freak out on this. Compare
> it to the whole *** talk thing with Malcolm - it wasn't 'don't' it was
> 'do it responsibly'.
What she should have realized, though, is that is that she was giving him
her go-ahead to do it if/since he wasn't already. Sometimes it's just
easier for parents to assume their kids will do the bad thing at every
turn - keeps them from having to have faith.
> Kids have to learn this kind of lesson for themselves. Seeing Malcolm
> learn could be a positive lesson. Seeing it beaten into him won't be.
> If there is to be a payback for the drinking in the show, I figure it
> has to come from somewhere other than Lois, at least if they want it
> to have a real impact on the audience.
I don't know why but I keep thinking Craig has to fit into this somewhere.
He's usually the go-to guy when one of the Wilkersons needs something, so
it
could go something like this: Malcolm is at a party and gets smashed, and
instead of going home to certain doom he decides to crash at Craig's.
Maybe
he throws up on one of Craig's $2500 limited edition comic books and
that's
why he has to get the job, to pay Craig back.
Or...after the hangover wears, Craig decides to toy with him a little -
saying, doing, and showing him all kinds of stupid things making Malcolm
think he is still wasted. That alone turns him off drinking forever.
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