Training pet peeves

Ladies and gentlemen, please., I beg you please, don't drop your kid off at the gym and let him loose in the weight room without a proper spotter. The definition of a proper spotter is not his equally inexperienced buddy. Tonight, I had a 13-yr_oldish kid jump in with me on a rowing exercise. Normally, I use anywhere from 65-90 lbs on this particular machine and I do them correctly, focusing on my negatives. This kid put the peg in the 50 lb slot, leaned back, and let 'er rip. Being a parent myself, as well as a believer in technique, I had to step in to help. I instructed him to move his butt forward, sit straight up, and not let the thing just fly back to starting position.
He was very thankful and I saw a couple other gym patrons smile and nod at me. I thought for sure his mother or father would see this 30-yr-old woman talking to their kid, but no parental unit was in sight.
I am all for kids' fitness and strength training, but parents, please invest on some proper training for your young aspiring iron pumpers. It is highly important to do this for obvious reasons including avoiding injury and if they want real results.
The other thing I see a lot of is the girls and some guys standing in front of the mirror, wasting their time doing a ridiculous amount of weighted side bends. Ladies, this "exercise " does nothing for our figures. While you think you are working on whittling your obliques, you are actually building them out increasing volume on your sides.
To achieve an hourglass, practice doing more twisting abdominal exercises. One thing that also helps me with my core is lifting as heavy as I can for 15 reps, three to four sets on my various exercises for all the rest of my muscle groups. Yes, you should work your abs separately, but when you lift heavy on the other stuff, you achieve better results for your core.  So next time you want to work those sides try to twist more and lift often.
I guess you could say I'm picky or anal about this sort of thing, but learn from others' mistakes including mine. I am extremely passionate about this stuff. I like to see people get results without hurting themselves and in a timely fashion. Fitness is a wonderful thing, and it keeps us young for longer. Everyone should invest in proper training techniques. It doesn't make sense not to.