Thursday, March 28, 2024

Why our children are mostly clueless

Posted

Our children are clueless in regards to the harsh realities of life in the greatest country that ever existed. Why?
I have a simple and maybe overly naive answer: Too much of the wrong kind of love. While we all love our kids, we don't always know how to show them that hard knocks are the only way to get up off the ground again with a lesson learned.

We are overly protective and go to great lengths to make absolutely sure our "babies" never feel any pain of any sort as if that actual feeling will immediately kill them.

Think of your own grandparents and their grandparents. Hard scrabble lives were the order of the day, which meant farming, hunting, fishing, bartering, begging and sometimes whatever else was necessary --- even theft and other felonious actions.  
That's right. Momma and her great mommas before her had to make do with onion soup or dandelion salad or boiled squirrel if that was the necessity of allowing lives to go on.

Now we coddle, coddle, coddle our kin to such a state of unreality that they don't understand the coddling must end some day. When that day comes we have suicides, welfare, food stamps, prison time, shacking up with Leroy because he has a few bucks or even, God forbid, they sink so low as to join the military.

Anyone who knows me will realize I am joking about the latter, as I think all youngsters ought to join the military for a variety of reasons. I am not a war hawk or someone who wants constantly larger and larger Defense Department budgets, but it is the best way to get rid of that constant codling syndrome and cause the kid to mature.

Let's now revisit the beginning of this syndrome. After World War II, those who survived and thrived wanted never to see those horrors or suffer those deprivations ever again and they certainly never wanted their kids or grandkids to even come close that kind of trauma.

Korea happened and patriotic folks responded, but when Vietnam came on the scene it caused a backlash as we all got sick of this democratic imperative to rule the world simply because we are always right.

A bunch of kids went to Canada and a much greater bunch served in the war. Americans never learned a darn thing because Iraq and Afghanistan kept the war machine well oiled and chugging along with a variety of justifications.

Once again all the loving parents and grandparents didn't want any angst causing their peeps to die from self-inflicted wounds and thus the coddling generation was born .... and they continue to live in your basement or their friend's basement or Aunt Sally's ... whatever.

I think the kids are afraid of failure, as if that was the actual end of the world. The kids are also shellshocked that their college degrees are mostly worthless unless and until they are given a break by God or one of his angels.

They just obligated themselves to $100k+ of debt for a piece of paper that states they might be fairly competent in a certain area of life, but maybe not, please give me a try. Clue the "puppy eyes" and offer to work nearly for free just to get your foot in the door.

Sometimes God intercedes out of pity for the helpless, but on many occasions these hapless puppies get run over by cars or thrown into the abyss of a boiling pot operated by supervisor number one or foreman number two or principal number three or sergeants and unbearable roommates.

I only have one thing left to say about this bleak picture. Let it stay dark and keep your hands off the turmoil and chaos of what everyone needs to mature and that's a bit of hard knocks.

After not too long, a new day will dawn and new flowers will spread their petals and life will go on. Chirp, chirp I hear the birds of spring.

That's it. Leave some of the situations exactly as they are. Human kind is far more durable then one may think. Losing car keys or being behind on rent or having children "accidentally" are not comparable in magnitude of importance, but all do happen to even the most disciplined.

Sometimes those we love deserve our love delivered in a formula part bitter, part sweet. If little Johnny doesn't get his butt back to work within a few days or weeks after moving onto your couch then personally drive him to the Marine Corps Recruiting office in East Wenatchee.

Guaranteed he will never be the same after trying a bit of tough love.

In the end he will thank you ... or maybe curse you, but it is all up to him.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here