Parenting

Parenting has gone through many changes over the last several generations. An old adage concerning children and adults was “children should be seen and not heard.” While I know many great parents doing a wonderful job in raising their kids today our culture has slowly shifted from parent-centered to child-centered families.

My parents, like those of today did not want me just sitting in front of the TV all day but they did not go out of their way to provide an alternative. They just shooed me out of the house and told me to be back in time for dinner. Now, parents fill up their day with a schedule of programmed organized activities and all we end up doing is reducing or even eliminating the time they have to be alone with other children their age to figure the world out on their own.

Parents are quick to rush to the defense of their child and even side with them over other kids and even those we entrust them to during the day such as teachers, principles, bus drivers, daycare providers, other parents, etc. When I was a child and got in trouble at school, church or in the neighborhood I was punished and not excused by my parents. They even encouraged other adults in authority to discipline me when I did or did not do what I was expected to do and then come and tell them so that they too could disciple me.

I ran across an article on parenting the other day and the writer made some very good points about how parenting has changed. See if you agree or disagree with this quote:

WHAT’S FASCINATING IS THAT WHILE many of us over-parent when it comes to promoting achievement, we under-parent when it comes to things parents prior to us were fanatical about for centuries: manners, courtesy, respect, responsibility. It’s not that we’re pro-brat, but that we’re so uncomfortable being figures of authority that we can’t demand those things of our kids.
Last fall, my colleague Amy Donohue Korman wrote a piece, “The Death of the Chore,” that chronicled how so few of today’s kids are expected to help around the house. It was a wonderful essay, and it was only one example of our instinct to indulge kids, to make them see us not as “The Man” but “da man!” Five-¬figure Sweet 16 parties and six-figure bar mitzvahs, kids with platinum cards and more borrowing power than many major American cities, frequent massages (the kind of pampering once reserved for women in Beverly Hills), boob jobs for graduation, Senior Weeks spent not in Wildwood but in the ¬Caribbean or Europe … And don’t even think about ¬chiding someone else’s child for being rude or irresponsible; today’s parents always side with their offspring.
The result of all this is a group of kids with a depressingly skewed sense of values and a shocking sense of entitlement.

God has given parents an important job to do. If we do it right the next generation will be blessed but if we don’t take it seriously we may be cursing them instead.

Proverbs 22:6 (ASV) Train up a child in the way he should go, And even when he is old he will not depart from it.



If you would like to read more of what he had to say go to the website below.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/bad_parents/

Roger, over and out.