Oddly, we adults often make reference to how awful it is when a child does not have a “normal” childhood. . . And, what is a normal childhood today? Being generic, ordinary - even lowest common denominator? Receiving awards for participation because trying too hard means you might hurt someone else's feelings when you do achieve better grades?
According to UNICEF and other world body reports, today’s children, despite the wealth and ease of western life, are the unhappiest of any past generations. Despite being coddled and even assailed by obsessive over-protection, children feel uncared for. Increasingly, they show signs of bottled-up anger and depression. Taught to feel entitled, they are more demanding; angrier than children from previous eras. Unlike children of the past, they have no idea how to deal with the unexpected or how to fend for themselves. Unable to formulate solutions to problems they are becoming increasingly dependent and submissive. Often lethargic, they prefer being tethered to their digital accessories than being active, involved or “connected” to others? And due to an inability or even an urge to be physically and emotionally active, obesity and its concomitant consequences continue to be an urgent problem along with a distorted body-awareness leading to self-hatred.
If anything, we should be wishing that our children not be like everybody else. We should be offering them the opportunity to be active, curious, daring, free and to eagerly embrace discovery and the mysteries of the unknown. We should be wishing that our children be awed by the marvels the world has to offer - i.e.: to be awed by more than the word “awesome”.
We should be wishing that our children not be clones as dictated by marketing and to not be fearful as dictated by adult feelings of overwhelming impotence. We should be wishing that our children and grand-children be incredibly and wondrously themselves - to be strong and resilient and even belligerently rebellious. If not. . . Their children will be even more despondent than they are becoming.
According to UNICEF and other world body reports, today’s children, despite the wealth and ease of western life, are the unhappiest of any past generations. Despite being coddled and even assailed by obsessive over-protection, children feel uncared for. Increasingly, they show signs of bottled-up anger and depression. Taught to feel entitled, they are more demanding; angrier than children from previous eras. Unlike children of the past, they have no idea how to deal with the unexpected or how to fend for themselves. Unable to formulate solutions to problems they are becoming increasingly dependent and submissive. Often lethargic, they prefer being tethered to their digital accessories than being active, involved or “connected” to others? And due to an inability or even an urge to be physically and emotionally active, obesity and its concomitant consequences continue to be an urgent problem along with a distorted body-awareness leading to self-hatred.
If anything, we should be wishing that our children not be like everybody else. We should be offering them the opportunity to be active, curious, daring, free and to eagerly embrace discovery and the mysteries of the unknown. We should be wishing that our children be awed by the marvels the world has to offer - i.e.: to be awed by more than the word “awesome”.
We should be wishing that our children not be clones as dictated by marketing and to not be fearful as dictated by adult feelings of overwhelming impotence. We should be wishing that our children and grand-children be incredibly and wondrously themselves - to be strong and resilient and even belligerently rebellious. If not. . . Their children will be even more despondent than they are becoming.
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