Mamacita says: Are we protecting our children too much? Everything is so bland, so effortless, so sanitary, so entitled, so sterilized, so soft, so completely without risk, requiring little or no talent or skill, so full of self-esteem and so lacking in merit, that it is little wonder so many of our young adults wouldn’t survive three days on a desert island without a camera crew on hand to keep them alive when push comes to shove. There’s no WiFi on a desert island. Many people would die in less than a week without their WiFi. (They don’t know how to grow or hunt their own food or make a fire or a shelter, etc. They’re pathetic.)
We’ve got children who not only wouldn’t know how to climb a tree to save themselves from a bear attack, they probably wouldn’t know any better than to assume the bear was a sweet thing that welcomed a Kodak moment. We’ve got children who’ve never walked around their own block without at least one adult present. We’ve got children who have never in their entire lives played in their own back yard without adult supervision.
Our kids have never organized their own games, made their own friends, walked to the neighborhood store, jumped rope, been outside after dark, put lightning bugs in a jar, or gotten dirty without a scolding.
Today’s kids get passing grades without really passing, sports trophies without really playing, and attendance awards even when they’ve missed six days for orthodontia appointments. Bullies receive more sympathy and help than their victims. Disruptive students are allowed to remain in our classrooms, destroying the learning opportunity for other kids. (Disability or not, no child should be included IF that student presents a danger to other children, or in any way prevents other children from learning. I’m not backing down on this one.)
These kids have no organizational skills because all their school supplies are in big bins that everyone helps himself/herself to – many of these students will go to college and expect their professors to provide the pencils and paper. How do I know this? I am a college professor, and every semester, at least one younger student wonders where the paper, pencils, paper clips, and staplers are kept. When they are told to supply their own, these students are absolutely flabbergasted.
Many kids these days would not know what “flabbergasted” means.
Their playgrounds look like the toddler room in the church basement, not a single pair of jeans has had to be patched, they’re chastized if they get dirty, and they have never had a broken bone or stitches from just being a kid and playing in their lives. Simple falls, slips, bumps, and bruises are Benadryl foddder. They’re not allowed to climb because they might fall. They can’t whirl and twirl because they might fall. They can’t run because they might fall – or make some child who can’t run as fast feel bad. They can’t throw or kick baseballs or footballs or kickballs because someone might get hit, or get upset at witnessing another child’s skill. Imaginative play is forbidden lest it include a pirate sword or a finger gun or some kind of sexist, non-PC labeling.
What’s next? No walking, because they might fall? It wouldn’t surprise me.
Many kids are not allowed to make their own friends because unless the parents can also be friends, it just ain’t happening.
Children are allowed to run wild in public places, eat and drink anywhere they want, talk during movies, and pretty much rule the roost in their own homes and anyone else’s, too.
Excuses, reasons, and rationalizations are made for all misbehavior. It is never the child’s fault. He can’t help it.
Many children eat what they want whenever they want it. Parents are so afraid little Lulu and little Tubby will be hungry or their self-esteem will be eroded that they cater to these little monsters in every way. If anyone objects or finds fault, that person must be a child-hating ogre who just doesn’t underSTAND how sensitive Lulu and Tubby are.
Teachers are too strict and require too much. Theater patrons who glare have forgotten how it was to be a free-spirited child. Restaurant servers and customers are just hateful selfish beasts who ought to appreciate children and not expect them to be sentient. Fast-food restaurants FORCE families to eat there every night, and that we are all fat isn’t our fault -it’s the restaurant’s fault for MAKING us go there.
Am I in a bad mood? Not at all. I am actually more amused, in a head-shaking, disgusted, sarcastic, snarky way, at so many young parents these days who are making it so difficult all the time when it really shouldn’t be.
When people allow children to be in charge, life is going to be hell. Plus, these parents are also responsible for encouraging their children to grow into adults who must be ever entertained from without, who can’t sit still for thirty seconds, who have poor eating habits, shoddy entertainment preferences, and a sense of entitlement and blamelessness that should shame the nation.
P.S. Parents who allow their children to be in charge DESERVE the hell they are nurturing. Is that harsh? Bite me. The truth hurts.
Yes, I am aware that such things have been said about the younger generation for thousands of years. That doesn’t make it any less true.
I love children too much to stay quiet. We need to nurture them, love them, cherish them, and require them to genuinely grow up, and that means, to have the knowledge and skills to take care of themselves and of others.
Nobody has the right to be helpless unless he/she really is.
