discussion has led me to some thoughts about kids today. There are many
differences between kids of today and those of my generation. Some of these
differences are not necessarily for the better either.
First of all, when I was young we could go out and play and in fact were
encouraged to do so. Such is not the case today due to the hyper fear of
kidnapping or sexual predators. While both of these problems are issues, I
believe that the media has overblown these fears to the point of hysteria.
That's possible today with so many sources for news and information and what
passes for same. One must be careful about sources as not everything seen
on the Internet is accurate with some of it being outright false.
Back to the topic of kids today. Many of these kids are in organized sports
and the like so that parents can get them out of their hair. This is not
necessarily good either because there is no time for imagination which
unorganized play allowed for. You can't play cowboys and Indians anymore
because that's not pc or politically correct. Well, in my world PC means
personal computer and nothing more. However, certain groups, mostly
liberal, have shaped our world when it comes to this type of stuff. You
can't play the above-mentioned game because someone might be offended or
something. It might send the "wrong message". Give me a break.
Then we have the self-esteem crap that is peddled in school. This is why
you don't keep score in games anymore and why kids can't play dodge ball.
In both cases, someone might feel bad about themselves if they are on the
losing end of the game and we can't have that. As a result, you have kids
who feel good about themselves and feel entitled as well. Can you say
"cute and authorized"? I can and hate it. This is a lot of what you see
in restaurants these days when you have brats running around sticking their
grimy little hands into everything and the parents not stopping them and the
restaurant staff afraid to do anything due to the fear of being sued for
doing what the parents refuse to do. Anyone who does try to do something is
likely to catch hell from the uninterested parents of these brats. Well,
discipline them and establish control at an early age and you would not have
these problems,now would you? These parents don't get it.
Then you have parents who are too busy and self-absorbed to get involved in
their child's life, a formula which only leads to problems later in life.
Where were these parents when their child was 2? Where were these parents
when their child was 12 and running around the neighborhood totally
unsupervised? How come the parents knew nothing about their child's friends
when the child is 18 and wearing a prison jumpsuit? These are the parents
who have really failed to own the responsibility as some like to call it.
You have good parents who don't give their kids everything they want, who
challenge their kids to do good things, who see failure as a way toward
success by allowing the child to learn from that failure thus allowing for
success the next time around and who teach respect and responsibility.
These are parents and children you don't hear about as good news does not
sell. Bad news, however, does sell and there's plenty of it too.
Unfortunately the bad kids stick out a lot more than the good ones do and
you see examples of the former in the grocery store and the like, more so
than you see the good ones because the good children are quietly doing good
things while the bad ones are making everyone's lives miserable.
Are their bad parents out there? You bet there are and often times bad
parents lead to bad kids. These are parents who don't discipline their
children and let them run wild because they can't be bothered. These are
parents who should have never had children in the first place.
Are there issues in education? You bet there are and those issues are a
topic for another day and another entry.'
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