Kids just want to belong

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LETTERS

Wonder and delight
I look forward to reading Richard Glover’s book “How To Ruin A Child” (Insight, 17/10) as my experience of parenting three girls has been one of joy and delight. My guides were Jean Liedloff’s 1975 book The Continuum Concept and Rudolf Dreikurs’ idea of logical consequences in Happy
Children.
The needs of children are simple and any so-called ‘bad’ behaviour by them is generally the result of ‘bad’ behaviour by their parents, whose greatest need is to be educated on parenthood and child development.
I disagree with the idea that child-raising is difficult, as it need not be. If we could see our kids as sources of delight and wonder, and parenting them as an education, a pleasure and a privilege, I’m sure we wouldn’t see our teens desperately seeking attention and a sense of belonging by being violent and destructive.
Kids just want to belong, be approved of, and to know that warm acceptance is always there when they need it. It’s not rocket science.
Don Jordan, Mt Waverley

White House hire
There is a concept and practice in the world of work called due diligence. It involves checking an applicant’s claims of qualifications and work experience, something I’ve done many times.
However, in the case of the recently hired and fired White House secretary Katie Zacharia these background checks were ignored by Donald Trump, who seems to rate blonde hair above all other considerations.
Stephen Dinham, Metung

White House fire
Zacharia Scamooched, vamoosed.
Julie Conquest, Brighton

Get rid of states
Six weeks to another state election. But do Victorians benefit from having a state, let alone the political tussle of an election?
There is a strong argument that the six states and two territories cost taxpayers unnecessary expenditure. Each with its own set of rules and regulations. Each slightly different, and enough to make transferring from one to the other challenging especially for professionals such as doctors and lawyers, but also for tradies.
Each police force, fire brigade, ambulance service, schools, hospitals, clinics, universities, etc, has its own set of guidelines, uniforms, procedures that make it difficult for them to interact with one another to our frustration and expense.
There are many more examples that add cost and complexity to our lives. Surely, it’s time to scrap the states and increase the remit of councils with local knowledge and expertise.
Especially as most states are reliant on federal funding. Let the federal ministers do all the work and interact directly with much larger councils that would represent their communities.
Mike Reece, Doncaster

Knowing nothing
It seems the Exclusive Brethren are actually run by Sergeant Schultz of American sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, famed for his line, “I know nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing” abbreviated in later series to, “I know nothing, nothing”. (“Brethren leader says he knew nothing”, 17/10).
Helen Moss, Croydon

Safety at stake
The Country Fire Authority launched its 2026 bushfire readiness campaign with the striking slogan “Get Fire Ready” on October 1, two weeks earlier than last year. That’s noted with concern in your masthead’s timely editorial (“State failing to protect us from fire disasters,” 17/10).
Highlighted in that column is the poor condition of the state’s ageing fire truck fleet, so dire that $1.5 billion is needed for “critical fire truck replacement and upgrade needs”. Problematically, the state’s debt “now sits at about 25 per cent of the state’s economy”.
The prospect of a change of government offers no ground for optimism, with the opposition saying “it will not find the $1 billion called for in the audit”.
If this were a federal issue, it would be easy to conjure up the money by implementing a gas export tax or by cancelling AUKUS, but there’s no such low-hanging fruit for the state to pluck.
Oh, wait on, what about the Grand Prix circus and the Big Build rorts? Labor would embellish prospects with some serious revenue recovery.
Tom Knowles, Parkville

Gas cop out
Megan Herbert has picked up right where Cathy Wilcox left off. Her latest cartoon (17/10) is biting. The Albanese government is indeed pretending to sympathise with everyday Australians who are doing it tough while allowing gas giants to walk off with a wad of cash.
A 25 per cent tax on gas exports would raise about $350 million a week. That’s enough to offer real power bill relief in a cost-of-living crisis. Instead, Labor keeps letting multinational gas corporations, who are adding to our climate woes, line their shareholders’ pockets. Who is the government really working for?
Amy Hiller, Kew

Good buy
After seeing new petrol and diesel cars languishing in overgrown fields in rural Germany in 2023, I was determined to get rid of mine and replace it with an EV made in Japan.
It was second hand but in perfect condition. It’s still going strong and its battery is working at 97 per cent efficiency. Not bad after eight years. It’s proved to be a great town car, and costs virtually nothing to run.
Paul Chivers, Box Hill North

Into lion’s den
Anthony Albanese will face a challenge at the G20 in Florida next month, for Donald Trump, as an ally, is like sharing a cave with a lion. A lion is not a big pussy cat. Unless you continually feed it, you may be its next meal.
Even then, at a whim, it could break any unspoken truce.
Albanese has to be wary with Trump, mid-terms or not, Putin or not. The Canadian prime minister is in a position of power and can challenge Trump, as he has shown.
Albanese is not. Neither does he have the demeanour to do it. Saying no to Trump and sticking to it as Carney has done, is what we should do.
Trump is an out and out bully. His sidling up to Putin, Netanyahu and Kim Jong Un should be enough for us to say, ″⁣You are no longer an ally of ours″⁣.
Trump has few principles and we should not give ours up to appease him. He will get his comeuppance at the mid-term and next presidential elections. We have to wait it out.
Better still, we need to leave the cave as it is not a safe place to be.
Greg Tuck, Warragul

Sour grapes
On Saturday, we bought some red eating grapes from our local Coles supermarket.
Imagine our surprise when we got home and were putting the grapes into a bowl when we saw that they weren’t Australian grown but were imported.
What’s happened with us when we import grapes from overseas when we grow more than enough grapes here?
The lucky country? More like the dumb country.
Stan Thomson, Sandringham

Blame game
The Good Weekend story (17/10) is headlined “Don’t blame the Boomers. It’s a generation both envied and maligned but there’s another side to their story”. When I was a teenager, Sammy Davis Jr released a song called “Don’t blame it on the children” in 1967.
Is the state of the climate and property prices our fault? I think so.
David Fry, Windsor

Gun violence
When will US change the gun laws? It is shocking that there are so many shootings. Its gun homicide rate is 26 times higher than other developed countries.
Susan Munday, Bentleigh East

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