Many times the analogy of children has been used in discussing our collective behavior. I do not have the good fortune to have children, but I have many family and friends that do. The following ancedote comes from a visit with one of my closest friends.

My friend has three children. The day I last visited, the older two were in school and the youngest (just under a year) was sleeping. Before the child woke up, the mother said to me "He has figured out how to screech at the top of his lungs. So please just ignore it if he does so, as we are trying to break him of the habit."

Shortly afterwards, the child awakens and the three of us go to lunch. About every fifteen minutes, as I am talking with his mother and his mother is feeding him Cheerios and juice, the child lets out a screech. At first, I thought it was the Cheerios... but then I remembered, remained silent and tried not to smile. His mom didn't flinch, didn't even acknowledge him.

The third time this happened, my friend turned to her child in the middle of her sentence. And with a calm voice that was a distinctively different tone than that she had used for the past hour admonished her son "You are going to have to learn that this is not going to work." Then she looked back at me, finished the sentence, and continued our conversation.

The child didn't screetch for the rest of the afternoon. He did engage his mother for attention several times, but using more conventional approaches. He received what I thought was an appropriate amount of attention each time.

Why have I bored you with this tale?

Punki is right on the mark that we should be peaceful and ignore those who are screetching looking for attention. But that only works if there is a "parent" with authority that is responsible to admonish and reprimand; politely, gracefully, forcefully, but in the end effectively.

We do not have that here, and we wonder why our "children" are so unhappy.