The De-Evolution of Accountability

Is it me, or does it seem as if our generation (the 40-60 somethings) placed greater emphasis and value on accountability and independence than the children we gave birth to?  It seems as if we put a great deal of effort into getting jobs, getting our drivers license, moving out, and owning our lives at a much earlier stage than the generation of young adults we see today.

Now I'm not saying its either better or worse, just it would seem...a bit of a back wards crawl..a de-evolving if you will.

Today's kids are having sex earlier, drinking earlier, and forever professing their independence and lack of desire and or need for parental guidance. But the moment they make a monumental blunder, guess who is expected to step in and fix it or plea for leniency on behalf of the oh so independent one? Its not an absolute of course, there are those of us who still try to teach our children the laws of cause and effect, consequences for actions both positive and negative. But more often than not, in the news, in our schools, all around us, the parents are preventing lessons from being learned and enabling their children to simply continue into adulthood with no sense of accountability.

It's a paradox really.  On one hand they are making more adult choices, or rather choices of a more adult nature in their behaviors. However, when the time comes for accountability, they cry foul. They want to pick and chose when to play the adult card and when to play the card of being a kid. So how do we successfully parent the adult/child teenagers in this topsy turvy wibbly wobbly world? Its enough to drive you crazy.

Did we make a mistake by wanting to give them better lives than we had? Did we err by preventing them from facing the same struggles we faced as young adults?  Did we somehow compromise their character building experiences by steering them around them?

I see only two choices for future generations. A. Don't have kids, its takes time and sacrifice and unless you are all in then you might as well be all out...or.... B. Follow a traditional path of parenting with discipline and regimen and make sure that even with the temptations of technology and society pressure that you never check out. Be thick skinned and prepared to say no even at the risk of painful daggers thrown your way during that squishy time between teen and adult. Expect to hear the words "I hate you" but know that in all that hate there is love and someday gratitude.

I've never been a fan of evolution so its no surprise I refuse to fall prey to the de-evolution of our kids.  I'll take the hate, because I know at the end of the journey, it all comes back to love.