Glen Butler

Out of curiosity, I watched 3 previously recorded episodes of " I Am Jazz" and can only conclude that this is "wimp parenting" at its best! As an intelligent, middle-class parent who has reared two successful children and step children, I know very well how challenging parenting can be. However, if we allow one or all of our children to emotionally strong arm us to get their way, we will constantly engage in a battle of wills that will never be enough!! We create bratty, out of control, self entitled monsters that expect the world to bend and bow at their beck and call. When this doesn't happen, they're angry and blame everyone else for "bullying" them resulting in them having lower self-esteem, more self destructive behavior than ever!! We are parents because we should have to experiences and maturity, judgment to understand that there are phases of life that cannot be avoided. You cannot go around them, under them, or over them, you must go through them. My challenge to Jazz' parents is to please stop "gold digging" and learn the word "no" and mean it. She will respect you more for helping her to avoid making permanent, irreversible decisions that may result in a life time of infertility and possible health consequences. Jazz doesn't have the judgement yet to know which gender she's even attracted to which all the more reason to allow her frontal lobe (the part of the brain that helps us to reason and be rational) to fully develop. . That's okay.... she needs to learn self control anyway.. life doesn't always go any of our way all the time but this is exactly what she needs in order to accept and embrace that fact. I can only hope that other kids that are bullied; real obese kids, disfigured kids, jet-black skinned kids, kids with disabilities, kids with cognitive disabilities, to name a few, can get the same protections as kids affiliated with LBGQT. No networks are rushing to create a much needed reality show for them but maybe soon they will, since seems to be the cultural in thing; create a reality series and the more dysfunctional, the better.