Time for SL clubs to wake up?

[trotski_tgwu]

If I Recall Correctly

Tut Tut CP no TXT speak please or you might get Fraggled

[cpwigan]

To quote albert trotter "theyve got no respect these days"

"They can do anything they bloody well like"

Hate to say it but its true

There are exceptions but they are just that.

It was interesting reading Open Rugby this month and the feature on St Pats during their halcyon youth era whereby they mentioned none of the players in their great U17 team smoked or that they often looked at the players background (parental) before signing a player. Not sure you would get 13 juniors if you ran either criteria today.

Whilst 'society' (does it exist) often screams it is the schools, it is the police to blame the stark reality is WE are to blame. Parents, extended family and 'the community'. Even then once your son/daughter reaches 5 to 7 years olds, they are then very heavily influenced by forces somewhat beyond your control as parents as they become influenced by their peeers, good and bad. Peers that are obsessed with becoming bastardised American gangs.

To bring children up in today's world is an incredibly difficult task and one has to question how much value is put on parenting by the state. It think it is fair to say more and more money is pumped into offering facilities, creating programmes for young people but less and less emphasis is put on allowing parents to be parents and to describe a mum as a housewife/mother has seemingly become a slur/insult. A travesty given the importance of their value/importance.

[DaveO]

If I Recall Correctly

Tut Tut CP no TXT speak please or you might get Fraggled

It's not text speak. It's a Usenet abbreviation and they are allowed. Examples are IMO - in my opinion, IMHO - in my humble opinion, LOL - laugh out loud, ROTFL - roll on the floor laughing. They form part of Usenet etiquette which is a means of making clearer your intentions when typing text as often what you say can be taken the wrong way. They are a bit like emotions from an era when graphics were not available.

There are many more.

There is a list here:

http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/acronyms.htm

..and the fist line at that link illustrates the difference nicely and why abbreviations are better and different than text speak:

"Dnt abrv8 2 much - although well-known acronyms or abbreviations are, IMHO, good."

One saves typing and is a means of being polite by saying things like IMHO means you are not claiming something as fact but you don't have to type all four words. Text speak is well, just awful in comparison.

Dave