Posted on 11/09/2013 4:41:50 AM PST by Kaslin
For many American children, the floor has become their closet. This drives me crazy. I walk into a room where an urchin resides, and there are clothes scattered everywhere. Believe me, I know the passive-aggressive tactics that kids use to torture their parents, but something else is going on here.
More than a few times, I've heard parents describe their offspring as "amazing." If you look up that word, you will see this meaning: "To cause great wonder or astonishment." That's what "amazing" means. So occasionally, I will ask the parent of an "amazing" child to tell me exactly why that word applies to their tyke. What is the "great wonder" associated with him or her?
"He just is" comes the usual reply, along with a look that could kill a cactus.
Many children fully realize their parents see them as astonishing creatures and incorporate that into their daily presentations. That is, they throw their stuff on the floor because if you are truly amazing you can pretty much do what you want. Right?
When I confront the urchins about strewn clothing, I sometimes get a blank look. So I read their minds. And the brain waves come back this way: "Why are you bothering me? This is interfering with my texting. Someone will pick up my clothes. And if they don't, so what?"
American children are being done a great disservice by adult society. For reasons only Dr. Phil understands, many parents have decided to attach their own self-image to their children. So if the kid is amazing, that means the father or mother is amazing, as well. That's what's going on.
The huge downside is that it takes a lot of work and perseverance to become amazing, and most human beings never reach that status. But children are generally not told that. They are rarely confronted with the fact that life is tough and that to succeed you have be honest, industrious and disciplined. The discipline part kicks in when you hang up your clothing.
The disturbing thing about childhood these days is that some parents and grandparents excuse a lot of questionable behavior because they want their kids to approve of them. It all goes back to "amazing" again. If your extra-special kid doesn't like you at the moment, maybe you aren't topnotch.
Americans whose parents were raised during the Great Depression or World War II understand how drastically things have changed on the home front. My father did not care a whit whether I liked him, and it would have been unthinkable for him to pick up my stuff. There were rules in the house, and they were enforced.
So today, as an adult, I still pick up my stuff and recycle and keep a neat house. That is routine and not at all amazing. But I'm not sure that tradition will survive the next generation.
Good on ya. , Bill.
Signs of homosexuality. Real men are slobs. That’s why they get married.
Bill should know that I went through that with my daughter who is now 32 and a clean freak. lol
When she was 9 I quit doing her laundry because she would take the nice, folded stuff off the bed, throw it on the floor and walk on it. I showed her how to do her own laundry and she was on her own.
She still didn’t learn.
When she was 14 I told her if she didn’t clean all her clothes off the floor I would clean it up and she wouldn’t like what I did with it. She didn’t. She came home from school and was shocked that I had gathered it all up and tossed it out the front door into the muddy flower bed.
She did better after that. lol
“When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint”.
Hesiod, 8th century BC
“What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?”
Plato, 4th Century BC
“The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint... As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress.”
Attributed to Peter the Hermit, AD 1274
RECYCLING is a tradition...?
My tradition is NOT recycling.
What is wrong with recycling? *rme*
How incredibly silly to think the condition of a teenager’s clothes is relevant to his character or future.
Why are my kids amazing? Because they are more thoughtful of others than I ever was at their age, their intellect is far superior to mine, and they care about me.
Their bedrooms are their self-expression zone, the rest of my house is spit-spot (and they do most of the work). I suspect they will follow my path and become neat freaks, but, for now, they are still caterpillars in messy chrysalises.
*rme*
Good for you
Generation S (for Slobs) predates today’s children, O’Reilly. Ever watch the HGTV shows when they show the interiors of homes for sale, and they look like photos of a tornado’s aftermath? Who would live like that? It takes years to be a slob, so this is not a new phenomenon.
I am fixing up the basement for my slob to live in.
This happens because many parents don’t teach them and teachers don’t care. Or the other way around.
I on the other hand find the floor the ideal place to store worn clothing. Once a week it gets sorted and placed in one of the three laundry baskets.
In recent times, after my wife’s retirement , she has seen the wisdom and follows my lead. Her pile is a little neater than mine but it is still a pile on the floor.
I have been married to a real man for 32 years. He is not a slob.
Not an O’Reilly fan, but he’s right here especially about the overuse of the word “amazing.” It’s one of my pet peeves. Everything is “amazing” these days.
Yes, the Aurora Borealis is amazing. Sunset over the Rockies is amazing. The miracle of birth is amazing. The latte you just had is not “amazing” (said of course “amaaaazing” preferably while gazing up toward the sky.) Your kid’s stickman drawing is not “amazing.”
It’s lazy language.
I agree
You are a Chauvinistic pig/slob
Congratulations.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.