Thinking Out Loud: What Has Parenting Come To?

I think they should do a comparison study of the thought processes, personal and intellectual growth, emotional well being, and overall quality of life of people who grew up with loving parents, some with different priorities than the others. Half of them raised on technology, and the other half raised on imagination. The techy group would represent today's kids who are practically born with an iPad in hand. The dreamer group would represent the time before when children didn't compete with adults for gaming time on facebook.

I think my generation was the last one who had the organic experience of learning to get along with your siblings through building lego cities, having to share the Tonka Trucks in the sandbox, playing tag with the neighbor kids, and cleaning up after our own toy messes. I can not pretend to understand why the majority of us decided that having to develop our imaginations as kids was such a bad thing, and that it would be better to let children run the house, and let technology shape our children.

I happen to be a rare deviant of my generation. I didn't sleep around in high school, wind up pregnant, and have a shot-gun wedding. In fact, I waited to give my virginity away until my early 20s, never had kids of my own, and have yet to find prince charming and get married. I like to learn from the mistakes of those around me. It saves me from staying in situations I am not happy with that have very little potential for changing.

I feel like parents these days are too worried about being their child's best friend or having their "me" time to be real parents. This results in the heathens we as a society have to deal with in real life. These kids are taking the bus by themselves at an early age, haven't been taught that "no" actually means "no", please and thank you are rare, and they rely on "their" cellphones before they can even interact with humans properly.

When and why did it become acceptable to let technology raise children? It's bad enough that so many people rely on nannies, babysitters, their parents, their siblings, or a daycare to raise their children! I realize that the economy is bad, but if you can't afford a family DON'T START A FAMILY! If you don't want kids, don't like them, or don't have the time for them, DON"T HAVE KIDS! If you can't write out a budget and stick too it, don't have your priorities straight, or still have the attitude, "I'm young and want to have fun", you have no business having children!

Your life can not revolve around your job, your hobbies, or your friends if you decide to bring children into this world. True, you need a job to pay the bills, and occasionally, you need some time to relax with other adults. Notice the key words: bills, and occasionally. Focus needs to be placed on things you actually need in day to day life. Healthy food, a safe home, nurturing home life, and structured play time balanced with age appropriate tasks around the home create the best environment for children to thrive.

Where does this strongly stated observation come from? It comes from 32 years of noticing the effects of different family upbringings on all of the children I have known. Starting with people I grew up with, kids I babysat, kids I watched all day while their parents were at work, kids I nannied, and kids I went to school with or encountered in daily life in the real world. I have seen what makes a well rounded kid, versus a spawn of Satan. I have also dated a few people with kids. I've taken mental note of why the behave better for some people and not others. Many times, they behave better for others than their parents. There are the occasional imps that are perfect for their parents, but think it's okay to be a hell raiser when their parents aren't looking.

It seems to me like there are a lot of very intelligent people from my generation, who decided to make really stupid choices in regards to raising children. They are brilliant at doing their jobs, but their children are last on the list of priorities. It is as if having children is cramping their lifestyle. Maybe you should have thought about that before deciding high school would be a great time to start having sex.

Marriage isn't a big deal either, apparently. If they don't like the first one, they can just get a divorce and try it again with someone else. Better yet, they cheat on their  families with a younger person. Notice two things about that sentence. 1) When you cheat on your wife or husband, it is not only them you are cheating on if you have children. You are cheating on your family. 2) It is clearly not just men cheating, and more and more women fall for younger men these days. I for one think this is due to the "men" of our generation failing to act like adults. It has left women little choice but to take notice of younger men who act with more maturity and purpose than men our own age or older.

Children see and feel everything their parents do and say. Even more importantly, they notice and are effected by the things they fail to do and say. Children especially notice their parents' interactions with each other, and with them. If you set your kids in front of a television, computer screen, or hand over your phone for them to play with all the time to get them out of your hair, they learn that they can't live with out these items. Life revolves around electronics. They also learn that if they cry or behave badly, they get a reward. They get to play with mommy's or daddy's phone, or they get to watch movies, or play video games.

Typically this also means that when their mommy or daddy are using some kind of electronic, they get to do whatever they want. It's as bad as the parents of the kids I went to school with who were drug addicts or drunks. As long as they got to do what they wanted, they didn't care what their kids were doing.

I know I am not alone in my viewpoint. I have had conversations with people about this very subject. Usually, they are the ones who bring it up. People on the bus of different ages, my mom, people I've talked to on dating sites, people I went on dates with, and people at the store or the mall. It doesn't take a genius to see the effects of different styles of parenting on children, and by extension, society.

Unlocking My Spirit

Freedom is knowing what you want from life, and not caring what others think as long as you don't hurt their feelings purposely. I am a very compassionate person, and this has been the imprisonment of my spirit since my life began. The metallic bars of my prison were the decisions I based on making others happy, whether it would make me happy or not. The concrete foundation of my prison was love. I feel too deeply for those I care about, without regard to my own needs a lot of times. Lately, I have been changing that imbalance.

Balance is the delicate thread of life. Having everything you want doesn't have anymore power to make you happy than having nothing at all. What makes you happy or unhappy is your mental image of yourself, and by extension, those around you. This is how it is possible for a very poor person to wear a smile and show politeness, while a very rich person can be very bitter, rude, and unfulfilled.

I have seen from my life how this applies to passionate people and free spirits. I have always been very passionate. Everything in my mind was black or white. Good or bad. Love or hate. This translates into my activities as well. I am either really great at something, or I can't do it at all. I realize I changed the tense of my words in the last two sentences. It bothers me, too, but it's true. I am in the middle of a transformation, so naturally, somethings are now past, somethings are in progress, and somethings are still yet to be accomplished. Perhaps even more things are yet to be realized.

One thing I know for sure about life: you never stop learning unless you don't care and have your eyes, ears, and mind closed. Life is all about learning, exploring, experiencing, and solving puzzles. It is an endless adventure with hidden keys that unlock huge gates with mysterious pathways.

The key that I recently found, was perception. Learning to balance my thoughts. If I don't like how things look from one side, try looking at it from the other side. If the standard view doesn't seem right, flip it upside down. Challenge your thoughts if you don't like them. I have been going to therapy for about a month now, and this has been a great help so far. I deal with various forms of anxiety, and that triggers depression, which brings out obsessive compulsive behaviors. Excessive cleaning, organizing, and tidiness.

Sometimes we are too quick to put a negative connotation on situations that don't seem to be going the way that we want them to go. I may have just quoted my therapist :) . It's true, though. I've learned that taking time to weigh evidence for and against your negative thoughts can be very helpful in gaining a new perspective.