@hawkeye10,
Acknowledging parenting is tough is hardly an
“ode,” to parents, and because it's such a very tough job doesn't mean every parent is good at. Quite the opposite.
Yes, there are plenty of terrible parents around the world and a lot who never should have had kids. I know some personally and it's a great shame, but the children these failures have are not all failures themselves. People can survive terrible parents and become wonderful people, and wonderful parents. It's very difficult, but it happens. All children reach an age when they are capable of making decisions based on what they have learned from life; not just their parents. Having lousy parents is not an excuse that mature and self-aware adults make.
Similarly very good parents can have terrible kids. Genes come into play, but just as children with lousy parents can and do make good decisions, children with great parents can and do make bad ones.
I think you are over-generalizing about
"today's kids." They do seem to be maturing at a slower rate than past generations, and, unfortunately, have developed a sense of entitlement that is as much a product of the society in which they live, as it is a characteristic their parents have instilled in them. However, criticism of the younger generation has been a favorite pastime of old farts for probably as long as there has been more than one generation. I know a number of kids who are just fine and in all likelihood will do very well in the wide wonderful world.
I’m always astounded and deeply disappointed by the level of ignorance that exists within every generation. It’s quite possible that the “educated classes” of the past were far more knowledgeable than they are today, but they were also a lot smaller. Today, there are millions of kids going to college simply to forestall their entry into adulthood and to participate in bacchanalia. For the middle class and above in this country, it is a given that children will go to college; that
they have to, to succeed. Unfortunately college curriculums have been diluted to the point where just about anyone can obtain a degree. It may be an essentially useless degree, but they’re fairly easy to achieve. If college was ever meant to prepare kids for life, it doesn’t now, and they are being fed so much ideological crap they can’t help but carry it into the
“real world.” Unfortunately, as well, our society does not really respect labor and as a result, kids who might be happier working as skilled technicians in any number of fields are forced by their parents as well as their own preconceptions to go to college and secure an essentially useless liberal arts degree. We should, as a society, be working towards an environment wherein labor is respected and trade schools and technical colleges are not viewed with derision as symbosl of failure or stupidity.
I don’t think the Baby Boomers, in general, have failed as parents, but the failing of many has to do with a desire to be perceived (whether by themselves or others) as young and hip. For a generation that placed such importance on being cool, it was bound to remain with a lot of them as they grew older. Few things sicken me more than hearing a Mother gush that
she and her daughter are more like friends than mother and daughter! It’s a pretty good sign of a lousy parent too. Yes, you want to be friends with your kids in the sense that you want them to feel comfortable around you, to confide in you, and to enjoy a number of similar interests, but you shouldn’t want to be more a friend than a mother or father to your kids, and you shouldn’t want them to see you as a friend and not their parent. Friends don’t discipline friends and parents have to discipline children. If a parent foregoes discipline because it might interfere with their “friendship” with their kids they are not doing their job; not being a good parent. Teachers are afraid to discipline kids, because parents have made them pay too high a price for doing so, therefore if the parent doesn’t provide discipline in a child’s life, where will he or she get it?
I should note that by
“disciplining a kid” I don’t mean punishing them. I mean introducing discipline into their lives. Teaching them to be responsible, to be industrious, and to forgo immediate gratification for greater future reward. To live life without discipline is to be a spoiled brat for your whole life, and unless you are born into great wealth, without being able to discipline yourself, you are not going to be successful. It is in this regard that I think Baby Boomer parents, in general, have failed the most.
