Because I Said So!

I’m not quite sure why so many parents want to believe today’s kids are different.  Now, if they were claiming kids are fatter than they were  a few years ago, that’s a position with supports.

According to research, almost 60% of children in America are obese. The rate of overweight children in America is increasing rapidly. It has tripled in the last 30 years.

But these added pounds aren’t the core of the conversation that the parents, with a hopeless look on their faces and an attitude expressing “I know what the problem is“  are  talking about.

This parental declaration, like the added pounds on children’s bodies, has been growing over the years.

The irony of  the proclamation that children are different is that those touting this misguided message are parents of kids who are pretty much out-of-hand – unruly.

How many students on the school’s honor roll would be the kids whose parents insisted some slack needed to be given and their kid needed to be understood as not being like kids of yesteryear?

“That’s an out-dated and old-fashioned way to raise kids,” the lady on the second row of the parenting workshop blurted out as I described the need for rules, boundaries, values, consistency and an ability to be involved with their children in a purposeful communication strategy.

The participant went on, of course, to proclaim and expand upon her theme that today’s kids are different.

The more she talked about her version of effective parenting the clearer it became that kids haven’t changed but some of their parents sure have.

Who is in charge?  Who is the adult and who is the minor? Whose house is it?  Does the rental/lease agreement or the deed to the property now bear the minor child’s name in place of the adult’s?

While I’m too often told I don’t understand today’s kids, I’m not the problem.  The problem is there are far too many parents who have decided kids nowadays are smart enough to chart their own course.

The third-grader who proclaimed he never had any homework, nor any spelling test, and insisted he was doing well in class but managed to get a big fat F on his report card, had a mom who believed if he needed help he would have asked for it.

This is the same kid who sets his own bedtime, interrupts adult conversations and uses profanity like a sailor.

Kids aren’t different; parents like his have simply abdicated their position of authority.

The popular high school student who was not allowed to run for student body office because the petition he was required to circulate for teacher signatures produced low grades and poor attendance told his parents the school counselor was picking on him.

His mom believed this lop-sided point of view.

Too many parents think their kids know what’s best and this includes those who let their kids, because they like the bad stuff,  become overweight.