I remember being a child, a teenager and a young adult.  What I don’t remember being was a rude, condescending, know-it-all brat that was so self-centered and/or selfish in nature adults would avoid contact with you at all costs.  I don’t remember it because it never happened, at least not to me.  Granted, I had friends who were close to being that way but even they had limits.

 Today’s teenagers and young adults seem so to be so out of touch with society and how to behave properly, it will be a surprise for them when they enter the real adult world of jobs and responsibilities.   Today’s teenagers will be surprised to realize that as they enter the adult world and want something back from it that the self-centered and selfish attitude will not serve them well at all.

 How did these kids wind up this way though?  Adults my age that I am familiar with did not start out that way and none of them even closely resembled what we see today.  Is it the parents that are to blame?   I would like to think that that is not the only factor, that there has to be more to it.  I consider myself to be a strict parent, with consequences for undesirable actions, yet, no matter how hard I try, I cannot get my own 14 year old to think about someone other than himself for even 10 seconds.  Everything he does or says is about him in some way without any regard for how his actions affect anyone around him.

Is it our schools?  I don’t know.  I would like to think that our schools have good and bad teachers, that it balances out but frankly I have run into more teachers who shouldn’t be teaching than ones who should.   Some teachers in my opinion have just turned plain lazy, especially those with tenure.  Being that our children spend so much time in front of these “adults”, could they also be emulating the attitudes of some of them?

Could it be the generation they are growing up in?  I remember as a young child, teenager and then young adult spending a significant amount of time outdoors.  Today’s kids act like it is a punishment to be sent outside!  “It’s boring!” and “there’s nothing to do” are the claims that get made at my home.  When  you do kick them outside for their own good, they would rather sit on the stoop outside the door than actually go out and find something to do!   Ride your bike to a friends house?   “But that’s a mile away!”    Oh com-on!  As a kid I easily rode a mile or two to see my best friend. 

It’s simple, children today are given too many conveniences, are entertained too much and simply put, they are a bunch of spoiled brats!  Now, before I have someone writing saying “must be your kid” or “my kid is not that way”, hear me out, I am saying most kids, not all.  If you have a perfect angel at home, consider yourself blessed by God, the rest of us are not so blessed.   Don’t get me wrong, I love my children to death, but once they reach teenagers they become self-centered selfish aliens that I just do not understand any more.

What seems to be the answer?  I don’t know.  I know that I will continue to try to pound into them that respect for themselves and others is more important a trait than any other they will possess.  I will continue to pound into them that taking pride in your work and doing the best you can is what you should expect from yourself if you expect it from others.  Finally, I will continue to strike home with the fact that they need to understand that as unimportant as they may think their actions are, they have consequences AND far reaching repercussions that affect many others and not just themselves.

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