When did being a child become so difficult? I remember the good old days. Back when all you ever needed was a pair of shoes and a bike and you were all set. Back when you knew that bad behavior led to not having any fun. Back when your friends were all you had and that meant something. I am not sure those days exist anymore for today's kids. I am only twenty nine years old. It has not been that long since my glory days of bicycle trail building, sledding, and the good times with my buddies. Kids today don not seam to be able to appreciate those finer intricate pieces of life. They want bigger and better. Friendship to them is just not what it was to me and my friends.
At thirteen years old I had some of the present day fun that children now are able to partake in. My parents bought my brother and I most of the newest and coolest vidoe games of our time. We did not go without to often. None of these things really mattered to me though. I was happy with my bike and my close knit group of friends. Most of them I still have today. Life was not that complicated for me. I never worried about my make up Ok I am a boy but you get the point. I never cared if something did not go my way or if stunk at something. Children today are so consumed with who they are and how everyone perceives them. They often refuse to adhere to any sort of self discipline and like to throw fits when you try and teach them how to live an easier life.
I live with my girlfriend and her thirteen year old daughter. I never could have imagined the strife that this young woman thinks that she is going through on a daily basis. I am not nor was I ever a teenage girl, and I don't pretend to be one. What I do know is that life today really is not all that different from what life was fifteen or twenty years ago. I think that the way we are raising our kids is what has changed. Maybe we as parents need to make sure our kids are a little more prepared for life and not worry about being their friends.
Earlier today we set out a handful of pumpkins to be carved. One each by three different girls that happened to be at our house on this lovely day. The carving started out just fine as most at home projects go. Like usual this only lasted for about a half an hour until my girlfriends' daughter threw a massive fit, throwing her pumpkin into the garbage and embarrassing herself in front of her to friends. From what I could tell there was nothing wrong with the pumpkin or its layout. Maybe this is our fault. The adults in the household. I wonder if sometimes parents don't spend enough time teaching their kids how to fail. We spend a lot of time teaching them how to succeed. I hear of little league baseball teams that do not have a winning and a losing team. We help our kids build their science projects and talk to their teachers when they are missing an assignment. Maybe what we should be doing is letting our children fail in life. I am not talking about letting them become all out losers. Just maybe let them experience what is like to fail a little once in a while.
Friendship also needs to be addressed with today's kids. I would have done anything for my friends at that age and I still would today. Kids today? No way no how. They are too selfish and self absorbed to truly care about a friend. The young one in our house has a new best friend every other week, usually after knowing these other girls for only a week or two. These friendships are just not what I would call a friendship. Let me try and define what a friendship is to your average teenager nowadays. Friends are someone that they would care to hang out with once in while as long as it does not interfere with what they want to do personally. These so called friends must adhere to a strict diet of being treated like garbage, and are left out to rot if being the friend does not coincide with the wants and needs of the selfish party. What happened to your best friend being like another sibling to you?
Kids today are dealing with a lot more than the kids of my day. Or are they? Maybe not. Maybe just maybe it's the parents of today that are letting everything affect their kids. Parents spend a lot of their time sheltering the kids from any harm. I am not saying let your little baby boy or girl get hurt, but maybe let them know what it is like to be hurt. Lets try not letting our children run wild with no consequences. When are kids make mistakes, we should let them pay the price. Being a child today is no harder than it was twenty years ago, and I don't believe it's going tog et any more difficult. What has changed is how we prepare them. Do yourself a favor. Then next time your young child does the wrong thing, let them do it before you correct their action. Please do not let you kids suffer any permanent damage or harm. Later on in life when they are faced with real adversity they will triumph, and maybe look back and remember the mom or dad that showed them how to fail…..I mean succeed.
