As a mother of a soon-to-be graduating from high school student I took the time to reflect upon parenthood. I’m a mother who accepted parenthood for all it's worth raising my son with my own morals and values, to be respectful, kind, considerate, dedicated and responsible. For 18 years I gave him and the world my best work. There are times we discuss his thoughts and views. I also discuss these subjects with his friends alike. Through the years this is what I have learned from them. They are pretty tired of hearing how their generation is hopeless and useless. These kids that I personally know, are not. They come from good families, and were raised well. They have inquired about how things were when I was growing up. When they hear my stories, most of their responses are "well things aren't like that anymore". How well I know. When we discuss religion, politics, racism, socialism, they all seem to have the same question? What is wrong with adults? You all seem to be so angry? Here is my reply. As my parents once told me when I was a teen growing up, the world is going downhill fast. You kids today have no morals and values, you think you have it so hard, and I'm telling you that you do not. As my parents stories unfolded there are similarities in some complaints. There was never enough money, prices for food and gas are going through the roof, and yet through it all, they moved on with the times. My parents complained about teens having no common sense any longer also. I find myself reminding my own son how we played outdoors, helped our parents around the house, and while growing up we did what we were told to do. I still had friends who snuck out of the house, used drugs, disrespected their parents, and so on. Fortunately I had parents who cared and raised me with tough love based upon how they were raised. Therefore I am able to think creatively, I'm good with my hands, can fix most things on my own, and I have plenty of common sense. Today there is no call of duty to be overly creative or to be fully mechanically inclined. I typed school papers on a typewriter, I used white-out. I used a rotary phone and had 1 hour of phone time to call my friends before bed time. Our home was protected by dogs and a shot gun. I wasn't raised in the inner city and walking home from school wasn't intimidating but "bad" people still existed in my world. My parents taught me to be street smart, and ways to remove myself from imminent dangers. I didn't carry a gun, I had to rely on my instincts. I began working at 15 because I wanted the new walk-man and wanted to earn my own money. They reply, "we do all of that", or "my parents taught me the same things". Not all kids today are "bad news bears". They no longer need to know the things we needed to know because their world is so VASTLY and technically different than the world we could ever have imagined. Do adults really think we're going back to the days of blackboards, textbooks, and spending hours figuring long math? Older people need to recognize this fact before they're the ones who are left behind. As adults we have to cut them a bit of slack because they do need to work out and learn things faster, because technology is making them do so. It is constantly changing and in order for them to compete for their tomorrow, being on their toes keeps them sharp. My dad reminded me how he walked 1000 miles to school everyday, because there were no buses, well dad buses were invented so we don't need to do that anymore. :) It doesn't discredit our "time", times are just different from what we knew. I was raised on hot dogs and American apple pie. Today all types of foods are brought to the family picnics, and holiday gatherings. These kids today have opened up their world to discovery and acceptance. I take my time to remember the childhood and I enjoyed it even if I my parents did ask me "what the heck! are you listening to"? That's not music! If the world as we knew it changes in ways unfamiliar to us, it won't be because they are a liberal or a republican, it won't be because their choice of friends and relationships don't look or speak as they do, it won't be because of their nationality or culture, it won't be because they watched Jersey Shore instead of the History Channel. It won't be because they had a child out of wedlock, or because their ideals didn't match their parents, my ideals didn't match my parents ideals all of the time either. So honestly sitting back and having this revelation I think it's safe to say I don't have an honest answer as to why adults are seemingly so angry and discontent. A conclusion that might satisfy their inquiry is that 'we worked really, really, super hard for the things we wanted and needed to do" and now it seems that you all do not have to, when in fact they do, just in a different way. They may not get the gist of our national debt, or understand the constitution as a whole, or even know all of the duties and responsibilites of our world leaders. Neither did I at their age. But I learned, and that's the key, as we grow and continue to grow older, we learn and think differently.
