I had read this thread with bit of fun and interest, I can see that Cheri, Frisky, Jill, and Liebliing had been maintaining that point where parents have a responsibility of showing what roles, that is roles of showing respect to other people and to themselves of course!. Children's mind are like sponge, they will absorb anything, this including the shouting and intimidation from parents which not only will 'correct their behaviours' temporarily, but also suppress their inate trust towards their guardians, their parents, their loved ones whom they set their eyes on and watch with awe, of course kids are going to feel some urge but i dont think majority of kids are 'grumbling beings that will twitch and needs a smack' like its not from the inate urge to drive the parents, people in surround to unease and feel power from it. Kids do not have sense of power in same ways as adults do, adult knows and understands how governments, workplaces ethics impose a form of submission - all in order to maintain social flow. Kids are imagining beings, they will pick up ideas but dont fully understand the undertaking, its confusions could (we all know this) come TV and other media influnces, and more often than not its 'other kids' (now DONT get Confused thinking ITS the 'Other parents'! in No way i am implying this OK) initiate these imitating the violence, or 'giving orders' in the school yards - so that is a form of indirect influnce as we know it occurs a lot.
ok, back to the parenting, we are in a society where there ARE a lot of confusion going on, about how 'power' is taught, perhaps because those in power Don't want us to get the real meaning of power and hence become subversive in some ways which might create social problems being manifested in quite sharp manners (like violence, racism, hate, gang membership, political violence, and so on).
Its just a fascinating scope talking about parenting, and i think i know why it had attracted attention, because this is the area where we can decide 'what do we want to teach our kids?' and ask questions, as society is mutating quite rapidly now, with shorter expected duration of the work-life, translating earlier retirement, longer periods of schooling, higher expectations of what career youngsters are 'encouraged' to dream about or actualise, while the steeper slope of success is going to bring a lot more disgruntled people not employed in the working-age group, it is SMALL wonder why parenting is such an important issue. It has nothing to do with morale (20 years ago yes, this was considered to played a greater role. Not anymore I think people are concerned because some of us might be afraid of just how unruly people might become, very scary thoughts!
just my 10 cents
ya know J I think this is one situation where its best for us to leave arrogance and ignorance be... 
