very depressed, need some advice...

hochpt21

steveinaz wrote: »

My grand children are the shot callers!

Is this what you meant :eek:

spidermanusa

I have a two year old whose curiosity knows no bounds. My gear is well worn though. I just make sure that she doesn't turn the volume up too high.

steveinaz

Don't sweat it. those aren't scratches, they're character marks. Don't be a "somebody scratched my cd player" wussy, k?

sucks2beme

There's always a headphone rig. Compact and easy to put up.
I had to go that route for years.

NJPOLKER

Get your priorities right. What kind of a Polkie/Audio guy are you?????

Get rid of the wife and kids and set yourself up a nice audio room.

I can't believe you guys didn't give this advice earlier.

drummer86

As someone with a little one on the way and a set of grill-less speakers, I'm absolutely loving some of the posts in this thread. Great advice from some good people on here. Hope you're feeling better, OP!

Moose68Bash

cfrizz wrote: »

Congrats to you Moose, sounds like you did just great in the Dad dept. My best to your daughters graduation & Wedding!

cfrizz,

Thank you. I am a lucky and a very proud father!

cfrizz wrote: »

Personally I'd rather go with a consistent NO MEANS NO approach with consequences for ignoring this simple rule. It worked just fine for me and my brothers, we grew up to be decent hardworking adults who respect ourselves and others and the rules of society.

I enjoyed very much spending a good part of Polkfest 2012 in the group with you and your brother. I hope you are both well and thriving!

Warm regards,

Phil

dcoil

Wow, really a lot of good advice. And to the OP, I hope things are getting better. As has been stated, you have some great equipment. As recorded by Argent in 1973, "God gave rock'n'roll to you, gave rock'n'roll to you, Put it in the soul of ev'ryone". Your style may not be rock, but whatever it is, it can be very therapeutic. Of course just like in every aspect of life, there is some real 'junk' music out there, which I've learned to avoid.
My $.02 on corporal punishment. It is used in our home whenever a child is outright rebellious. We probably used it a total of 10 times when raising 2 daughters. It was never used in anger (sometimes needed a bit of time to cool down). It was always with discussion and love with the intent to instill in them the desire to do the right thing. We always chose to err on the side of leniency vs strictness. We did not feel it appropriate once they got to about age 8 - 10. After that it was a much more of an intellectual approach of communication and removal of privileges until trust was re-established. Our daughters now have families and they, along with their husbands, are our best friends. We have used corporeal punishment once on each of our oldest grandkids (now 11 and 14), but only when we had responsibility for them for several days. There may be a few more spankings in line as we have 4 younger grandkids. But they seem to get from the older kids that they better stay within the boundaries. Our kids, and now our grandkids know the boundaries. And I think everyone, even adults, feel good about knowing that if I stay in the boundaries I can do ‘whatever’ and have a good time and enjoy life.

TSWisla

Finally relocated and put together!

txcoastal1

Looking sweet buddy...

End of the great depression

heartystatue

Wow! That is exactly what I'm talkin bout. That is most beautimus.I'm glad your outa your funk. Now get your funk on!

westmassguy

When my son was around 4 he "accidentally" sheared off the stylus on my Shure V15 Type V cartridge. I was angry, but not at him. I hadn't mounted the TT high enough. We were into CDs by then anyway, around 1992. Try to find a way to keep and use what you have. Mount your gear high enough or in such a way they can't get their little hands on it, and as others have said, put the "fear of God" in the two younger ones. You think it's tough now? Wait till they're in their teens and tell you to go F yourself

edit, I see you did it, excellent.

RamZet

Kids love to touch tweeters. Good luck.

Moose68Bash

Beautiful rig!

Enjoy it in good health -- that is, keep the volume low enough not to damage your hearing!

hochpt21

RamZet wrote: »

Kids love to touch tweeters. Good luck.

I think we all like to touch tweeters, don't we??

TSWisla, that setup looks incredible. I would love to hear your system sometime.

madmax

I see your only source is a TT so this doesn't apply directly to you but with one of these keyed electrical lockouts installed on the back panel of a preamp or AVR on the power line a person could eliminate the possibility of anyone even turning a system on. Of course this doesn't help with physical damage other than overpowering the speakers.
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/NKK-Switches/CKL12ATW01/?qs=Eu4Cc6CKHhOZu7E7PgDEjg%3D%3D&gclid=COOf1-GtmbkCFY3m7AodAVQAoQ

edit: I guess the above might not be true for everyone, I would have opened up the cover and bypassed it after about the age of 8. :evil:

TSWisla

Thank you everyone. hochpt21, when you are in NE IL, give me a call.

polkpolkpolk

RamZet wrote: »

Kids love to touch tweeters. Good luck.

As long as you leave the metal grills on your tweeters, you should be okay. My little nephew went straight for my speakers (716v) and tried to push the tweeter in. Thankfully, those grills are fairly tough, and not that easy to take off.

cnh

The only problem I had with my kids, I have two, one in H.S. one a few years out of college and working in an office near tonyb (he moved from Boston to Chicago over the summer)? Was that the boy dropped a toy soldier into the HiFi VCR years ago. I took it to a friend to repair he opened it up removed the toy soldier and asked me if I had "kids". lol

My daughter, who is only 15 never touched "anything", nothing. Wasn't even interested in the stuff. I used to have a pair of L/R speakers that were about 30" x 16" x 10/11" that I would use to tell how much she was growing. I watched her go from a few inches shorter to being able to see over the speakers before I replaced them.

Instilling fear? Well that goes without saying. But I don't remember saying much to my daughter?

cnh

soundfreak1

TSWisla wrote: »

The issue is not if, but when. My kids are 3,5,9,12 years old. The 12 and 9 year olds would never consider touching my equipment, but as far as the 5 and especially the 3 year old go, curiosity would certainly get the better of them. But hey, I guess it is better to put me down than to offer some advice. Thank you.

EASY SOLVE "doggie shock collars" let them get within 3 feet and let them have it! (just a few zaps) trust me they will never go neer it again!! You keep your system they get a life lesson everyone's the better for it. Just dont tell the wife! Mine got very pissed!!!

tonyb

My grandkids, since they were old enough to understand the human language, knew Papa's saying, "Keep your peanut butter and jelly fingers off the TV and stereo". I don't allow them near any of it, not even to change a dvd, period. So far so good, I still keep a watchful eye whenever they watch TV though. After all, kids will be kids.

drumminman

soundfreak1 wrote: »

EASY SOLVE "doggie shock collars" let them get within 3 feet and let them have it! (just a few zaps) trust me they will never go neer it again!! You keep your system they get a life lesson everyone's the better for it. Just dont tell the wife! Mine got very pissed!!!

Reminds me of the episode on Cheers in which Cliff wore the shock collar and Norm got ahold of the zapper. Can't remember what habit Cliff was trying to break himself of, but it was hilarious. Payback time for Norm!

dscheer

I think the statement that: "NO MEANS NO" is all about being consistent on that statement.
I don't know your children, However; I do see parents having debates over a "NO" statement with thier children that are ages 3 and up. It blows me away how parents (No all parents and perhaps not you) Debate the "NO" statement while shopping or at home and at other functions. The parent is in charge, not the child and there should be NO debate to that period.

I realize rasing kids is tough, I had my times of strife, but! my wife and I did not remove one item from side tables or lock-up my audio equipment because the kids might get into or damage one of these items. I think that was due to the fact; that "NO Ment NO"

I wish you all the best.
Keep God in your actions.
Regards: Don scheer

tonyb

Amen bro, never had to do that either with any of my kids or grandkids. When I tell them not to touch something, they know I'm serious and breaking those requests comes with consequences.....which they won't like. Believe me, a few times of that and they think twice before even approaching not honoring my requests.