April 13, 2007
FOUR FOR FRIDAY
Q1 - Child Support: If a parent who is responsible for paying court-ordered child support fails to pay his or her due, do you think that the parent in question should be prohibited from seeing their child?
Q2 - Company Policy: Motivated by the fear of harassment claims, many companies now prohibit men and women from meeting one-on-one inside of offices or conference rooms that do not have a window to an outside hallway or area where others can see into the room. What do you think about that? Good move because it protects everyone involved, or an unwarranted overreaction driven by nothing more than overreaching morals and fear?
Q3 - Annoyances: Which bothers you more: a slow Internet connection or a dropped cell phone call?
Q4 - Travel: Butch Cassidy, the last of the great western train-robbers, was born 141 years ago today. If time weren't an issue, how would you choose to travel from one coast to another: by train, air, auto, RV, motorcycle, bicycle, horseback, or thumb?
Posted by Mikal at April 13, 2007 1:23 AM
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Q1. No. I think the parent should have his/her wages garnisheed. Don't punish the kid(s) for the stupidity of the parent, because kids think everything revolves around them.
Q2. Great, except...what about single-sex harassment?? Please. This is totally overreaction. Don't get me started on personal responsibility....
Q3. Different annoyance reactions: the internet connection thing is more of a long, slow boil that can be managed, while the dropped call tends (for me anyway, since I don't use my cell that often) to be more urgent and therefore causes immediate freaking out. :-)
Q4. RV. But I might drag along a motorcycle on a trailer, or at least a car of some kind in order to do some exploring when the mood hit me.
Q1: My children are a victim of a father that does not and has not paid child support for a very long time. He owes over 35 grand in back support. The courts here in Hamilton Co. don't do anything but pat the guy on the backside {boo-hiss}.
With all that aside, I believe children should see their parents no matter what the situation is personally. I am a product of a divorce {never thought I would have one myself} and I saw my father on a regular basis. Sometimes I did not want to go and rebelled. I am glad I visited. I got the chance to see "the man" for who he was; the good and the bad. I made my own mind up as to why... there was a divorce. My dad did not pay support, as my boys father has not. That issue has nothing to do with the visitation the children should have. Afterall, they did not choose to come into this world, we choose to bring them into this confusing world. ..and so, as much as I loath the man my children call dad, they will see him, unless their safety is at risk{which is often the case}. Sorry for the length of this response, guess I needed to share my personal perspective.
Q2: It is overreaching! Watch out for hidden camera.
Q3: Slow internet connection. I rarely use my cell phone.
Q4: Train.
Q1 - Child Support: I think they should use other means, kids need to be with their parents.
Q2 - Company Policy: It's overreacting, but as the CEO of a company, better believe it's our policy. It's not the organizations to blame for overreacting, if they had nothing to overreact to (read stupid people who sue and the attorneys who fan the flames), no problem.
Q3 - Annoyances: Internet for sure, I don't seem to 'need' my cell phone, but without the Internet, it's to the point now I can't function. Hope no one takes out the Internet.
Q4 - Travel: One you didn't list, I'd load up my backpack and see the country first hand. I'd walk/hike/trek.
Mine are up, good questions
1. Child Support: All I can say is that if someone tried to prevent me from seeing my kids, I'd end up in jail after the police followed the trail of dead bodies right up to my kids' home.
That's a joke of course... sort of. But if a parent isn't paying child support, there are generally two possible reasons for this: a) the parent is unable to keep up on the payments or b) the parent doesn't care about their kids.
Obviously there are more reasons than that, but... what was the question again? Oh yeah. Long answer short: No.
2. Company Policy: Hmm... tough one. I've never been in an environment where harassment was a problem (at least, not to my knowledge), so it's tough for me to say whether it's over reaction or not. Although, this is a pretty litigation-happy country. If I were a big corporation, I'd be worried about it too.
3. Annoyances: Internet for sure! I run a bunch of websites and often download files in the gigabyte range, so slow internet is a big problem for me. Cell phone is strictly personal, so having a call dropped doesn't really hurt me that much.
4. Travel: Good question! I'd probably go auto or RV, just so I can have full control over where I'm going and see as much as possible. It would be a zig zag route to ensure I hit every state, and see everything that every state has to offer.
1. Garnishee wages, yes. Prevent from seeing children, no. Kids need to see their parents if at all possible.
2. We live in a sue happy world and that's why companies have to overreact with this. Hate it has to be this way but feel companies are okay in doing it.
3. internet. Drives me nuts. Cell phone is only used for emergencies so no big deal. Only way it would be cell phone is if I was always on the road and that was my work lifeline.
4. RV with motorcycle or bicycle. I've been to all of the states but Alaska and Hawaii. Would love to do it again only slower.
1. I have to agree that punishing the kids for the parents issues doesn't seem to fit. Garnishing wages sounds like a punishment that fits the crime pretty well to me.
2. With the quick trigger finger to sue everyone, the general US population just can't seem to be trusted not to overreact to anything. So, yes, its an overreaction, but that's the only way business can response to the orginal over(legal)action.
3. Internet hands down. As long as dropped calls can happen, there's always the opportunity to end a that call when your mother-in-law calls up to nag. Oops, must have had a bad connection! There's just no good spin on slow internet.
4. I think the different people you travel with and get to meet changes as much with your travel method as where you go, so if time were no issue, I'd never come back. That being said, I'd probably give each method a try so I could get a chance to see the layers of this country. I'd have to do it this order: plane, train, bike, car, horse, RV, motorcycle, and then take a time machine back 50 years and thumb it.
Q1 - Child Support: Assuming the parent responsible for paying child support is capable of earning the money to do so, then I think the decision should be up to the caregiver who is now footing the bill and fulfilling his or her responsibility as parent. Don't have kids if you're not committed to raising them and supporting them in every way possible.
Q2 - Company Policy: Another case of a few individuals and a few incidents destroying the freedoms of the majority. This is a sad.
Q3 - Annoyances: I get annoyed when I hear an echo on my phone. It's too much like talking to myself... not that I ever do that.
Q4 - Travel: I'd walk. I once walked from Springfield, Illinois to New Orleans. It wasn't exactly a straight shot, either. Can't recall exactly, but the trip included hiking the Natchez Trace Parkway through Mississippi. The slower you go, the more you see, and the more interesting souls you meet.
1. Don't punish the child for the parent's shortcomings.
2. We are adults and can act as such. We do not need constant monitoring. Where is the personal accountability and trust?
3. Slow internet connections are the worst!
4. In an air conditioned auto. I think Butch Cassidy is buried in the SLC cemetery...but it's the Sundance Kid. One of them is up there if I recall.
1. No. The parent should have wages garnished, but also federal & state tax refunds, any public assistance such as unemployment. Seize their car or house and sell them to get the funds if necessary, but denying visitation rights is cruel. Not to the parent(if they aren't paying child support for anything other than extreme financial hardship, they probably don't care about seeing the kid anyway) so much as it's cruel to the child. All the kid knows or cares about is that the courts won't let him see mommy or daddy.
2. I think it's stupid, but given how people are inclined to sue for damages at the drop of the hat, I can understand the logic. The only other way that a company could protect itself is to video and audiotape conference rooms, cubes and offices, which would be much more invasive.
3. Dropped call, definitely.
4. I'd probably choose auto and take the scenic non-interstate route. If it could be made to approximate the golden age of rail travel, the train would be my choice though.
1. Not necessarily.
2. Well, I guess companies will do anything to cover their butts.
3. Dropped calls.
4. By train.
1. No. But if the reasons for lack of payment are due to situations that would cause harm to the child, then yes. But you never know, the parent in question may not have the means to pay child support, or is ill and can't work. So, unless a parent is abusive toward the child, he/she and the child should not be deprived of time spent together.
2. It can't hurt to be in view of others. Actually, yesterday I had a meeting with my CEO in his office with the door closed. It's just due to the nature of conversations sometimes and our offices don't have glass windowed office walls. If the person I was meeting with made me uncomfortable, I'd keep the door open or meet in a space I felt more comfortable.
3. Definitely the slow Internet connection!
4. I have always wanted to travel across the country. An RV might be fun, or by car. Either way you can stop and go at your own pace and see what you want to see, stay in hotels, meet interesting people. I love that kind of traveling. I really want to do this one day.
Q1 - I think the children need to be permitted to see their parents, unless their well-being is in danger by doing so. Period.
Q2 - This is just ridiculous. The world is changing so much, and not for the better. Kids in college are being babysat to a ridiculous extent, and then businesses are now putting juvenile restrictions on meetings between adults. When do we become responsible for our actions again?
Q3 - Depends on the day and the instance. I generally have little patience for slow internet while dropped calls don't annoy me. However, when they're say to the insurance co or some such entity where I have sat on hold for 30 minutes trying to resolve an issue and now have to start over, I'm more likely to get irate.
Q4 - I think either by train or RV. Depend on my mood I guess and what I wanted to accomplish. I think either trip would provide more time to relax and see things and enjoy your company.
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