People, please don't be so quick to jump on the shitty parents bandwagon and at least consider an alternative viewpoint. I have three kids. Two of them are absolute darlings who are so good that I can barely even put it into words. They do well in school, they try hard at everything they do, they listen, they want to learn, they are helpful, they are thoughtful, respectful, and they're literally everything else you'd want your kids to be. Literally.

Then there's my middle kid, who I can see doing this exact same thing when she's older. She's a real piece of work. She's rebellious, disobedient in every way, she's rude, disrespectful, physically abusive to my wife, my other kids, and me. She steals, swears at teachers, and finds every imaginable way to get herself into trouble, and does everything in her power to make sure that at the end of the day at least one person in the house is going to cry themselves to sleep. We've been to numerous professionals and they've all told us that there's nothing really wrong with her, and as politely as possible they've basically said..."I'm sorry, your kid's just an asshole." She's close to exhibiting some of the traits of the all-too-popular "disorders" every mommy-blogger's kids have, but she's either too young for a diagnosis, or doesn't exhibit enough of any of the traits of any single thing so we're still diagnosis-free.

All three of my kids are being raised in the same "ideal" home...my wife and I are still married and in love, we have good jobs that allow us lots of time at home with our kids, and we make good money so they have everything they need plus a little more but we don't spoil them with all kinds of unnecessary bullshit. There's no substance abuse, no verbal or physical abuse of any kind, and we have strict but fair rules that apply to all three kids. We try and try and try with the hopes that one day we'll get through to her and we're still looking for ways to help her and ourselves, but every day is a struggle with her.

This kid may very well be a product of bad parenting, but he could just as easily be a shitty kid who is breaking his parents' hearts every single day. These are things people don't talk about because it makes them feel like abject failures but I can almost guarantee you that every single one of you reading this knows someone who really is trying their best and doing everything they can but just can't get through to their kids. Having a shitty kid is very similar to being in an abusive relationship in terms of the shame you feel, and for that reason, it's not exactly something that is daily water-cooler chit-chat subject matter.

TL;DR - Not every shitty kid is the product of shitty parenting.