After seeing a thread today i have pondered this as i have been for over a decade. I don't understand why parents are entitled to get instant respect just for the sheer fact they are parents. You are raised saying "respect is given and earned" yet when it comes to parents most people assume it should automatically be given. I am only sharing this for the sake of the thread and i am not intending to blog with this; I don't have the best parents and that is a gross understatement. They only care for themselves,what is best for themselves and hardly put my sister and i first as the "ideal parents" should/do. My father hasn't done a single thing for me his entire life and makes no effort while my mother just lives her life. I suspect this is because of having children at a young age and they never got to actually "live" so they were trying to raise children while enjoying themselves. Now I am not some spoiled kid that whines about everything. I don't ask for anything so my sister can get "what she needs" and of course she is spoiled. I bought my own car, pay for my own gas and insurance, Make dinner at home if not i eat out, i bought everything in my room and majority of my cloths. I could go on but I pretty much do everything for myself and have the money to move out when i get done with school in a few months. Again, i could list all the things i do around the house blah blah. I do my part and so forth and because of such i have no reason to inherently respect my parents seeing as "i am my own parent" and have been self sufficient for nearly the last decade. I feel like the parents worth respecting are the ones that go above and beyond for their kids and don't try throwing anything in their faces because "i am your parent". I didn't ask to be born and nor did anyone else. Does that mean they should be respectful and ungrateful even when their parents are? no, but at the same time i don't see the need or reason for having some undying respect for your parents just because they are. I'll be expecting long rants (mostly from parents). The point i wanted to get across is that the respect should be earned both ways not inherently. [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] raganok99 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Scottus4 They don't inherently deserve respect. One doesn't respect doing the bare minimum for anything else, why would someone respect a parent that beats them or neglects them, even if they allowed them to live in their house with them and fed them (which are required by law, not feeding your kid is child abuse). They only deserve respect if they really put in the effort to shape a young person into a mentally and socially stable and productive member of society. [/quote] Kids, this is what he is talking and it matches what OP (Grey101) said. In fact, parents do not inherently deserve respect because they have bare minimum for anything else. They have to earn the respect by focusing its effort to their off spring to be mentally, socially stable and becoming productive member of society. If they didn't do that, then they do not deserve respect. [/quote] [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] QuestVibes No, not inherently. They earn it by providing for you and being good parents.[/quote] That is what i needed to see, thank you. [Edited on 08.20.2012 2:55 AM PDT]