When is a 'promise' really a promise?

As a child, one of the sincerest things you could use as a final plea to your parents that you would actually do something if they let you do what you wanted was to plaintively wail ....' I  p r o m i s e !' with all the vocal desperation of an injured elephant calf and usually accompanied with extreme twisting of body parts, to truly emphasise your seriousness and honest guarantee that this time you meant it.

This usually came about after a certain amount of prior refusal by you to do what your parents wanted because they wouldn't let you do what you expected you could. But it was not your intention to let them down afterwards, it was definitely the most sincere agreement you could make, but often, in your youthful exuberance you forgot what the full agreement involved and seldom faced the repercussions of failing to fulfill that promise.

You may have recalled the stress of the actual situation but it is the specific content that let you down as there was no media pack hanging on your every word (unless you grew up the child of a very prominent, and usually controversial figure) to report back to the world what you had said.

So is this part of the reason that people today glibly throw around the word 'promise'and people don't believe it? Politicians, friends, children and even parents use the word and how many of those promises remain unfulfilled. Does it lower the expectation of the listener when the word is now included, rather than reinforce the intended guarantee. Language is meant to evolve and develop, unfortunately some words and their intentions are diminished by such misuse. Losing their intent, significance and power. Lets re-invest in the word.