My Hummingbird Cafe

Many of our youth are good kids and have done a lot to show us they are ready to be our next generation of leaders. They show us that they are ready to be responsible citizens and parents. They show us that they have moral integrity and firm standards. These young people make us feel proud to have been part of their lives and excited about what they will contribute to our future.

Then there are youth we would rather not mention. Unfortunately, we tend to put all the kids of today in the same category as those who disrupt society. We blame them for their peer’s unruliness, their disrespect of parents, their disrespect of country and government, and their disrespect of authority in general.

In other words, we may blame kids of today for the movies they watch and the music they play, which is all about sex and violence or disrespect for parents and the law. We may blame them for their laziness and irresponsible attitude. We may go so far as to say that they have no goals, no responsible bone in their bodies, and they seem to have no reason to be otherwise.

The list could go on and on but the point is made that we often blame our youth for being a disastrous generation these days, right? But tell me, how did they get that way? Did we as their parents have anything to do with this? Did we as peers have anything to do with how our friends felt they needed to be when they were around us? Did we as role models have anything to do with how they interpret adulthood? I suspect the answer is yes to almost every one of these questions… I am sure that we each had a lot to do with the situation with our kids today.

I realize that you may say you did everything you could to be a good parent, and I suspect you might be right and that you were a good parent, but the influences around children now is so strong that it’s just too great for many of our kids to resist! On the other hand, I also suspect that there was something more we could have done that we did not do but should have – either because we didn’t know better or because both parents had to work outside the home and so we were not there to oversee our kids activities.

Believe me when I say that I am the last one to point fingers at parents who could have done better. I was a working mom as some of you are, and so I wasn’t home when my children came home from school. This means I wasn’t there to hear the phone conversations I should have heard or to see the visitors I should have seen come to our house but I wasn’t home.

If we are not home when our children come home from school, who will stop them from getting into trouble? Who will be there to give the support children need as teenagers growing up in a crazy world? I know it is difficult for parents today, and I really do understand the predicaments this situation creates for parents. I am not putting down parents who have to work, I am merely stating the obvious. Someone needs to ask the hard questions: such as “What can you do to help your children in the situations just described?”

Although our own children may have turned out to be pretty good teens, I am sure many of you know that there is usually one who chooses a different path than the others. We can try until we’re blue in the face . . .<<MORE>>