And this is not directed at any one person or situation in particular. But the stories that surface on this site and others really do seem to be clear examples of just how far we have gone downhill as a society.

Granted, we have improved in many areas. We know more about disabilities and how to deal with them, we've advanced in medical research, and much awareness has been raised about the evils of discrimination towards anyone.

But it seems like our culture has really taken a nosedive, especially over the last 30 years. More people are growing up in divorced homes. More kids are being born to people who do not know each other or have no plans of committing to each other. People are living together before marriage. People are having kids before marriage. No, none of the aforementioned things are criminal, but just look at how much stress, chaos, sadness and anger they wreak on the lives of those involved.

Customs and etiquette seem to have gone out the window. Nobody seems to really care about them any more. I get thank you notes from my older friends and relatives for gifts, but do not from people my own age and under. As evidenced on this board, a growing number of people from my generation have no qualms or misgivings about treating others like crap. If they do, they do not show them. They have no problem coming around to ask for money and/or get gifts, but do not seem to be interested in giving anything back. They claim to be "too busy" to pick up the phone to call and say hi, come over, ask the other person how they are doing, etc.

They expect THEIR BFs/SOs/FDHs/DHs to be treated with respect by Dad and everyone else, but think it is a-ok to $hit on the SP. I will admit that adult SKs can more easily walk away from the situation if they dislike the SP and I wish more of them would. If you cannot play nice, go away until you can. Younger SKs can't do that so easily, but I know some have. In the cases of the younger ones I think Dad needs to get them counseling and/or something else to help address their problems. But the adult SKs should have jobs and should be seeking out help themselves unless they have some sort of diagnosed disability- then the bioparent may have to be more involved.

So many people seem to do what feels good at the time and when others question or disagree with it, say "let he who be without sin cast the first stone." Fellow SM LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian come to mind. Many SKs seem to do this too. They do something that feels good, but when someone disagrees, they geet upset.

Weddings- don't even get me started on this. Many couples live together before marriage these days. So many people in my age range expect their parents will give them money to help pay for a big extravaganza of a wedding. Why does it have to be a big, big, extravagant thing? What happened to the simple but elegant ceremonies and celebrations of yesteryear? And how long do those who have big extravaganza weddings expect their marriage to last? It seems to me like most of those who have such lavish weddings land in divorce court fairly soon after. Look at Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (I will say good for her for dumping him). But the point is, these people had HUGE, outlandish ceremonies and got divorced fairly soon after. And Kim K got pregnant with Kanye's baby before her divorce was official!

Which leads me to another point. Our culture has not been helped by reality tv. We have people looking up to the likes of the Kardashians, Snooki, Kanye, Chris Brown, and others like them, and these people will be running our country in a few years. :sick:

I miss the days where things were more...outlined. You got married before you had kids. You wrote thank you notes. Other peoples' marriages were respected. Divorce was not occuring as frequently as it is today. People were actually parenting their kids. Expectations for decent behavior were prevalent. Our culture has become a total free-for-all.