Remember when kids used to ride these?
Three bicycles have been through our home – quite possibly more – purchased for our son to enjoy. All of them went to Salvation Army – virtually unused. Kids today – live in “virtual reality” instead of reality – you know – the actual world we live in? When video games end tragically, you get to start over again and live to fight another day.
No harm, no foul.
This is one reason why young people aren’t coping with REALITY. They don’t handle disappointment very well. They’ve never been taught how to deal with disappointment. Boomers have indulged them with all kinds of pacifiers in our quest to be popular instead of good solid consistent parenting.
I do not want to rag on young people. I have been a “young people.” I rode my bike all over the place. I fell and skinned my knees. I got up and brushed myself off. And – when I was old enough to secure employment – I went out and got a job. I mowed grass and I pumped gas. Because I was a snot-nosed stupid kid, I got fired too. I had a lot to learn about how to keep a job. I took Driver’s Education and got my first car. In baby steps, I learned how to make my way. There were a lot of setbacks – poor decisions that adversely affected my youth.
Life can be educational.
When I was 20 and between jobs, my mother gave me a talking to. She called me a bum and told me to get off my backside and find work. I did. My ego was bruised. However, it was incentive to grow up and find steady full-time work. No one – including my mother – was going to call me a bum and get away with it. It was at that time I began thinking about what I wanted to do in life. I joined the U.S. Air Force because I had a passion for aviation. I wanted to work on jets. I needed guidance to learn what to do when my enlistment with Uncle Sam was up. It was a miserable learning curve. I had a lot to learn. When you are very young, you think you have all kinds of time.
You don’t…
A word to the wise for those raising kids and grandkids. Prepare your kids for life or expect them to fail. Be a great mentor and parent. I tend to be a tough father – not to be mean – but to prepare our teenaged son for life. We are late in life parents who adopted a newborn at 50+. I want our son prepared for the world out there, which isn’t going to care what he wants. It will slap him around, hurt his feelings, and hand him his posterior.
In our day when Baby Boomers and GEN-Xers were young, we went outside and played with each other in the street. We got together and connected – and without cells phones and PCs. We had a good time in a mid-century form of social media on the playground.
What have we been teaching our young? Be honest. Electronic entertainment became a babysitter for Boomers and X-ers who don’t always like being bothered with parenting (you know this is true). Not everyone will agree – but I believe this is why we have spoiled entitled millennials who aren’t coping with disappointment very well.
And yes – we are to blame.
But – consider this. What if we would have had video games and electronic media 60 years ago? Would we have fallen into the same trap as our kids and grandkids?
You bet we would have.
One of the greatest things you can teach your young is WORK ETHIC. The value of a dollar and what it takes to earn it. Teach them life isn’t an endless supply of cash and instant gratification. Show them how important it is for them to plan ahead and learn to wait for things. We also need to teach them compassion for others. We’ve become so self-absorbed to where the masses just don’t even know how to do it.
What we haven’t given our offspring is our time. We’ve spoiled them with material goods, playthings, and everything they’ve ever wanted. That is what has made them feel “entitled.”
Think about it…
Boomer Journey... 