The problem with Kids today.

[Jimbuna]

Never felt I've been overprotective but ever watchful and ready to guide and protect if need be.

My lad was travelling the world at the age of sixteen in a cadetship as a navl officer trainee and I look at him now, 25 years of age and studying for his Chief Officers ticket.

My daughter is almost 21 and in her final year at university so what the future holds for her I'm not yet sure.

Taking all things into consideration I don't think my wifes parenting skills have been bad at all but when out and about I often witness the results of poor parenting.

[Armistead]

I agree, kids today seem about 5 years behind mentally and emotionally than my generation. We are creating an entitled generation that doesn't know what NO means, easily offended and lazy.

One of my peeves is all these suicides due to bullying. Not saying bullying is right, but it's part of a growth process to learn to stand for yourself.

The goal for a parent is to no longer be needed.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Armistead

The goal for a parent is to no longer be needed.

That is so true. As a child I witnessed a few sad moments. We didn't have grief counselors or a school psychiatrist. We had parents. I survived it. I guess todays parents aren't skilled enough. According to the experts.

[Dread Knot]

I guess it's not surprising given the example the authorities set. Last year the Postal Service announced it was scrapping a line of stamps depicting children in various forms of play such as skipping rope, walking and jogging, dribbling a basketball, etc. The reason? It received “concerns” from the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition over apparently “unsafe” acts shown on three of the stamps: a cannonball dive into a pool, skateboarding without kneepads, and a headstand without a helmet .





So if we end up with a generation of soft, obese kids who only want to live in the cozy world of social media, we have ourselves to blame as we slowly eliminate any examples of life ever having been different.

On the other hand kids probably don't even know what a physical letter is anymore, not to mention a stamp.

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by Dread Knot

Last year the Postal Service announced it was scrapping a line of stamps depicting children in various forms of play such as skipping rope, walking and jogging, dribbling a basketball, etc. The reason? It received “concerns” from the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition over apparently “unsafe” acts shown on three of the stamps: a cannonball dive into a pool, skateboarding without kneepads, and a headstand without a helmet .

Good thing there wasn't a stamp depicting a kid climbing a tree without a safety harness. Heaven forbid somebody else try to do the same thing, end up falling out of the tree and learning on the way down to be more careful the next time they're up there.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Dread Knot

So if we end up with a generation of soft, obese kids who only want to live in the cozy world of social media, we have ourselves to blame as we slowly eliminate any examples of life ever having been different.

Yeah, I have to say, who is raising these kids? We are. If they are coddled, it's our fault

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Yeah, I have to say, who is raising these kids? We are. If they are coddled, it's our fault

It's not yours or my fault that so many parents want their children to live in a safe sterile bubble in a vain effort to keep them safe from any and all harm.
Coddling is really stifling to their natural development and it really needs to stop. Otherwise, we'll have more and more maladjusted adults suffering from gimme gimme syndrome and the plethora of mental illnesses that seem to be chic these days. Where they all sit around comparing which antipsychotic drugs they've been prescribed. Then, there's the occasional shut-in that comes out with guns ablazing because he never learned how to deal with his peers or his problems.

[P_Funk]

I remember my days on the playgrounds in elementary. They had these old swings that we'd all race out to claim during lunchtime. We'd swing as high as we could and see who could leap the furthest. I remember one year the "duty teachers" as they were called really clamped down on that behavior. I remember lots of weird things happening. Suddenly they outlawed Tag because it was a "contact sport" or some bollocks.

I also remember that we would organize wars for lunch hours and would spend our recesses collecting acorns that would be our ammunition. We'd take our ziplock bags for our food, stuff them with acorns and bury them near the chosen battlefield because they'd take them away if we took them into the school. Lunch hour would see us lining up in opposing skirmisher lines and whipping them at each other. It was marvelous fun, and he who collected the green acorns was considered the most dangerous.

Nobody ever lost an eye or broke a leg on the swings. Sadly they replaced those swings with crappy generic baby proofed ones. I remember, nobody clamoured for them again after that. They'd defeated our interest in the name of safety. This was the late 90s so I guess western Canada was taking its time catching up to the supposed playground scare.

One thing I also vividly remember is being constantly bullied and the system being useless at resolving it. Early on I used violence to tell them to bugger off, but apparently thats unacceptable. Instead what happened was they would sit me and my bully down and try to sort it out like we were both equally culpable. My supervision by adults proved to me that they couldn't be trusted and all they did was inflict further torment on me by making mine or my parents' reports of it into more fodder for the bully. "Can't we all get along?" "No, he hates me, stop telling me we should be friends." "You have to resolve this." "Why do I have to do anything? I'm the victim." Their inability to resolve the bullying while simultaneously hampering my own independent desire to defend myself caused me to be a pariah for most of school. That was fun.

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by Armistead

I agree, kids today seem about 5 years behind mentally and emotionally than my generation. We are creating an entitled generation that doesn't know what NO means, easily offended and lazy.

One of my peeves is all these suicides due to bullying. Not saying bullying is right, but it's part of a growth process to learn to stand for yourself.

The goal for a parent is to no longer be needed.

I have seen the same conclusion postulated in regard to kids being five years behind in their emotional development. This seems to be done on purpose in our government run assembly line schools. I feel that this is done for the purpose of producing docile lambs who will fear rocking the status quo boat.

"I never let my schooling get in the way of my education" ~Mark Twain

I didn't either. From the age of six on up I learned things about life on my own through good old trial and error. As my experience grew, I developed a sort of sixth sense regarding situational awareness and danger to my person.
I learned when to hold them, when to fold them and when to get the heck out of Dodge.
Many kids today lack fundamental problem solving skill because their parents smother them with total control.
One can not learn to succeed without experiencing a failure or two.
I learned how to handle bullies when I was eight. If they won't see reason when you walk away from their taunts, then you sucker punch them.
Problem solved.

I'm with you on that one Armistead. Children need to be left to their own devices. Within reason of course. The parents need only keep a watchful eye and not constantly interfere. The kids are alright on their own.

[vanjast]

I wouldn't say its the kids.. it's the parents that have gone 'moggy', and turned anything into a 'nanny-state'. Protection to a certain point, after which they must fend for themselves.

At least my kids listen to Jimi Hendrix, and other weird musos
Their music choice is quite cool.