The Problem with Todays Kids

Every generation has tried to pinpoint why the next will fail.  Possibly because adulthood spawns existential crisis and possibly because every generation wants to be the best generation, which is a branch of existentialism in its own right....

In the throws of a migraine my kids are arguing about the usual nothingness. Screams from outside suggest it's over the front seat.  I reluctantly get in the car and ask them to get it together and act like adults.  Then I imagine my grown sister and I fighting over the front seat and what that would look like.  Naturally, I would win.  I've given birth naturally to a multitude of children and I could break her like a twig.  I smile at the thought, then remind myself, they're just kids and this is pretty standard.  I explain I have a migraine and would like them all to keep to volume down.  As they jump out of the car and walk towards the school arguing over a random unopened bag of Jimmy Johns chips they found on the floor of the car, which is clearly fair game, I send a prayer to all the teachers that have to deal with them today.

Then it hits me.  The real problem with kids today is the parents.

My brain quickly divides us into three groups.   

The first are the parents that don't care at all.   This is the really sad bunch that shouldn't have reproduced.  Unfortunately, this is the largest group.  No, I don't have the actual stats.  Their offspring, through no fault of their own, are carrying the burden and sometimes trauma of having to sort out their own lives and it is overwhelming to the Village.

Next are the parents that think their kids walk on water.  Equally as bad because they do just as much damage.  The only difference is their offspring usually end up in a different sector.  They usually find success and successfully find ways to blame others for their failures.  So pretty much everyone in politics.

Last is probably the smallest group, hence the problem today:  Parents that love their kids, have reasonable rules and believe that at any moment their child has the ability to be a giant asshole. 

Can we please recruit more of the last group! 

If only there was a screening process for reproducing.  Or people were taught how to handle criticism as not an attack, but opportunity for growth.  Then the Village could say, 'Hey, your kid was an asshole today.' and the parent could receive this information and say first, 'I wonder what underlying thing is happening in their life to make them act this way.' and secondly, 'How can we help them not act like this in the future.'  Instead of, 'They were probably only acting that way because of you/your child/your curriculum' 

Blah blah blah, another asshole is introduced into society. 

Perhaps I'm delirious because of the throbbing in my parietal lobe and behind my eyes or maybe I, myself, am having an exsistental crisis.  I suppose there's no fixing this situation and I'm just shouting into the black hole of the universe because anyone who is actually reading this and absorbing it is probably already on the right side of things.

For the parents that don't care, there's only an appeal to the underdeveloped brain of their children.  

For the parents that won't hear of their kids shortcomings: You are dangerous! You are most likely raising the future of people that will govern society and the Village is concerned.  With great power comes great responsibility (yes, Spiderman reference).  

We need to concern ourselves with the character of the people that will be decision makers.  

Will that be people that can decern right from wrong? Will they be empathic or apathetic, indifferent to a world that doesn't directly affect them? 

Will they lie, steal, cheat and mistreat?

The answer is:  They will if we let them.

Good luck to everyone on the front line, especially the teachers.  If the world made any sense at all you'd be getting paid triple what you're currently making.  I'm sorry you are undervalued.

I was recently quoted as saying, 'If the world made any sense, that would comfort me.'  Possibly the subject for my next article/piece/shouting into the black hole.....whatever this is.