(inspirational music)
Well!
(audience applauding)
Thank you very much.
Wow!
You know, I think it's really interesting,
how people can get in situations,
and it gains momentum.
And days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months
and you create this new normal,
and when you're isolated, it starts to seem normal.
And then I always am interested when people come here
and they watch their lives on video tape,
and they see what's happening,
and I can't tell you how many times people have said,
until I saw this,
I never realized what it looked like,
'cause I'm living it, I'm in it every day
and then when I get back and look at it,
I realize how absurd it is.
But,
were you surprised when you met the little boy?
'Cause, you expect Damien, right?
(audience laughing)
And that's not the case,
but they've defined this relationship
in such a dysfunctional way,
and he's gotten a bluff-in on her.
It's like, he's the stake in the ground
and she's the elephant,
and he's got her believing he has all of this power.
Did any of you,
think that made sense, for him?
Come on, she's buying him the video game,
she's buying him all the accessories, is that not,
am I missing something? (audience laughing mildly)
Really, I get dad has died,
I get he had problems before that, I get all of that,
but you've gotta start with the basics, right?
You gotta get back to zero.
You don't reward bad behavior, you earn your privileges,
and it starts with treating each other
with dignity and respect.
And if you don't do that,
you heard her say, "I've given up!"
I could give her the best tool belt in the world
and if she's given up it doesn't make any difference.
So, everybody we have up here is a teaching tool.
And so I'm hoping, you people at home
that have kids running roughshod over them,
look at this and go, oh my God!
That's me!
And maybe that's more extreme than 90% of the situation,
but they'll say, I see myself in that story,
I'm going to stop doing that,
I'm gonna stop letting my kids order me around
and have me do this and that.
We do have an entitled generation.
But parents talk about kids as though
they had nothing to do with how they are.
Right?
They created that.
I don't get it, (audience laughing mildly) I don't get it.
We all say that about the last generation, right?
I walk to school, both ways uphill, too.
(audience laughing)
Everybody says that.
Did you all get allowances when you were growin' up?
Did you get an allowance?
I didn't get allowance,
I had a job and you brought the money home
and you put it in the kitty, right?
You didn't get an allowance,
you brought your money home and put it in
'cause you wanted electricity, that's what you did!
I had a paper route and all that stuff when I was little.
But, different day, different time, I know.
(inspirational music)