After landing on the umpteenth meme celebrating abusive parenting in the name of raising better kids, I decided to ask google. What is wrong with kids today? After typing in kids today– Google filled in the blanks:
Kids today are lazy
Kids today are spoiled
Kids today aren’t what they used to be
Kids today have no respect
Kids today are wimps
Google threw in “What’s the matter with kids today” for good measure. As I worked on this post, I returned to the google results, thinking I probably suffered from confirmation bias, and missed the positive results. I did not.
This is tricky territory because a lot of the articles give good pointers, buried deep within the bowels of hyperbole and fear. There are parents who swoop in too fast, not allowing their children to learn how to catch their own balance. There are others who control every tiny moment of their kids’ lives, depriving their offspring of opportunities to learn creative problem-solving and decision making. The problem is, these caregivers are already afraid, that’s why they are making these parenting missteps. Adding more fear to the mix rarely accomplishes anything other than high blood pressure.
I’d prefer to look at it like this: kids today are doing the best they can. Parents today are doing the best they can. Let’s get some good information out there
Kids today spend more time in high stakes tests.
Kids today are getting more sports injuries.
Kids today have 1/2 (or less) of the free time we did.
Kids today stand up for each other.
Kids today help each other