The Role of Parents

When did the role of parents evolve to ensuring the complete happiness of their children? Children’s wants now drive everything from their parents’ actions, to the grading systems in schools, to rules in sporting events, to the increasing number of law suits.

What caused this shift? My theory is that it is a product of the new elitist attitude of America. In the early 1900’s the US was one of a few powerful nations, many of which fought World Wars I and II. When WWII ended, many of these nations’ infrastructure and financial resources were depleted. US citizens and the new flood of immigrants worked extremely hard to make the US the leader in manufacturing, production, logistics, and management. As the US continued to grow in wealth, each successive generation lost a little desire to succeed. Since the fall of the USSR, America has remained the sole “super-power”. With no propensity for hard work, we have become a nation of fat people. We are passing this laziness and sense of entitlement to our children.

Growing up in the US has always been about competing and rankings. Now you have basketball teams with 20 kids on the roster because everyone has to make the team, a 9 year-old can’t pitch in little league because he is better than other children and his success may damage their self-esteem, and worse of all, some elementary schools no longer give point-based grades, but instead use a fluffy grading system assigning meaningless letter “grades” meant to reflect the individual student’s personal growth and development. Good luck getting into Yale with an academic record full of M’s (meets expectations).

Why is this shift in attitude a problem? This is a problem because the US is surviving on the successes of past generations and foreign resources living in the US. As broadband communication continues to grow and develop, these foreign resources will remain in their home countries. If we continue to spoil our children, they will not have the drive to compete in the global workplace. It is easy to see the decline in sports, education, and economic growth. Don’t be fooled by politics and politicians who continue to tout the US as the most powerful country in the world. We are living in a global economy and workplace. Jobs will continue to exit the US, and not just the low skilled/low paying jobs.

Yes, the US is still the best country in which to live, it is just not as good as it once was. To use a sports analogy, the NY Yankees are the still most historic and wealthy sports franchise. They just aren’t as good as they have been. They won in the late 90’s by focusing on youth. It is time the Yankees and the US got back to a formula for success.

Talk2Me

GrannyVendetta