Yeah, not like they're going to get away with spanking or otherwise punishing the kids.

Frankly, I only see one answer to this. And it's what I'm trying to do. Isolate the kids a lot from popular culture. Avoid the things that are teaching them to be little brats and ignore their parents. This is why we don't have cable or TV, and why I really restrict what I let the kids watch on video - and I have gotten flack for that. Monitor and restrict what company they keep as a small child. I'm hoping to get my positive socialization in there strongly enough that it's too well grounded for the negative stuff to wipe it out as they slowly get more exposure to it as they grow older. (yeah, "yet another reason to homeschool")