I would like to postulate two ideas: 1) the future generations will doom North America 2) our moral code is misguided

1. I love my job. I'm a teacher. Because I disagree with most of what is being taught I teach music because it is the only universal 'truth' out there. Anyway, just by observing the generation from 5-20 years of age, it is a dis-concerning fear. My observations tell me that this group of future workers are being raised a) without a parental unit b)with the expectation that other will raise my kid for me c)on TV, internet, etc... d) without opportunities to 'play' as young people should play. I believe that we live in a society where both parents are forced to work because of their own personal need for instant gratification (kids, house, SUV, dog, picket white fence). Therefore, both parents work. The kids come home from school at 4 and are not parented for three or four hours. The parents come home from work and might see their kids before sending them off to some type of organized sport or practice (because they feel guilty for not being with the kid in the first place). Then comes that expectation. "Well, I can't be there for my kid, so the coach, teacher, etc will have to help me" And, again, parents use the TV, Internet, cell phone to pacify the kids when parents are two 'busy' to do what they made the choice to do in the first place: PARENT.

So, now we're left with a needy, selfish, un-disciplined generation that cannot make decisions for themselves, lack personal skills, and work together (because all their time was spent in front of a screen). I really worry about this generation of working-class citizens. If they are our 'future' then I feel our future is not bright.


2. People are having kids for the wrong reasons. Too many times I've heard the phrase, "but I just wanted someone to love me" as a rationale for having kids. In my opinion, the choice to have a family is just that, a choice. Coming with that, is the responsibility to pass on a sense of culture, morality, and ethics to your children. But, again, when no one is around to TEACH their own children about these things, kids get if from other sources. Parents are by far the best teachers/role models and strongest influence kids have. If they would only exercise that power stop catering to their children's needs and desires and guide them to make moral and ethical decisions, we would be better off in the future.

Buy WHY?? Why have we slipped? I think in the last 30-40 years, we have lived in an age of abundance. Money, property, success, prestige, etc... have all come relatively easy for a lot of people. People started to chase external things that they thought could make them happy....because all of a sudden, they could, so they did. They wanted it all, and all right now. And they got it. So these ideas were taught to offspring....and the cycle continues.

In a nutshell, parents are having kids to fulfill their own need for instant gratification. As a result, kids are being parented by TV, internet, and other adults, left on their own to grow up and make their own decisions based upon what moral sense they've learned, and will prove to be a burden to our economy.

Not to post a one-liner or anything, but I completely agree with everything you've said.

Do you have any solutions?

The way we raise our children is a result of the world that we have made.

What you describe is not confined to America, nor even (you may be surprised to learn) to the rich world. As far as I have been able to tell, it is now standard middle-class parental behaviour even in poor countries.

These things are self-correcting, though; future difficulties will weed these bad habits out of the human race. Many will perish before the lesson is learnt, but that, too, is nature's way.

[edit on 26-7-2008 by Astyanax]