Rise Up, Young People!

I thought that each day I would come here and post to one category after the other in my category list. This one happens to be first in line as well as one of my all time favorites for I love the youth of this country and hope to once again be involved in dealing with them via the crisis pregnancy center, perhaps after the New Year. 8-)

Oftentimes in the news there are countless articles revealing the aimless and senseless direction of many young people of today. Drugs, drinking, stealing, and all this while driving in cars that mommy and daddy bought and paid for. This is across the races too. In my town of close to 60,000 people, I have seen many Hispanic, Black, and Caucasian young people in some mighty pretty cars, many of them college students, or upper year high schoolers, that have the attitude of this is their due because parents are supposed to do these things for their children.

We do our youth a grave disservice by giving them all the things we didn't have, or making sure that if Johnny down the street gets PlayStation 2, then we better get it for our children too. What has happened is that we have not taught our children how to postpone rewards, how to have goals and the satisfaction that comes from reaching these goals themselves, as well as having a direction and a plan for their lives.

The word 'bored' was not allowed to be used in our home while the children were growing up. If they did, I had a long list of things that were waiting to be taken care of. It is the truth because there is always something to do, especially if you are blessed enough to have your own home. And to call it home, you have to be a part of keeping it together, from gathering for meals to helping to keep it in shape for the coming winter, upkeeping on painting or repairing, as well as keeping the bathrooms clean and your room neat. So, you put all that together and you have a pretty long list of things to do that all can have a hand in doing.

It seems that many parents have no realistic expectations of their children and many times children have outrageous expectations of their parents. But on the other side of that coin are the parents that risk the scorn of their own children by not being their child's friend while the child is being raised, preserving that relationship for when the child is grown and on their own; a relationship which, by the way, takes a lot of work on the part of both parent and child.

We can give our children a break by loving them right where they are and enough to say no way, and our children can give we the parents a break by saying (and showing) that they appreciate what their parents do for them.

As parents we are in the unique position to have already been teenagers, but as parents we struggle as our children go through these various growing and changing times that we have to try to understand from the parent point of view and teen point of view in order to deal with them and the situations that arise, as best we can. To our children, we pretty much remain the same, a parent all through their years. It is difficult for a parent to learn to let go and then also to become a friend to our adult children, but if successful, it is the crowing glory of our older age to grow into that relationship after all the years of mothering or fathering.

Our young people today have so many more advantages and opportunities than we had and our parents before us. I say, rise up, young people and take your place as the leaders of tomorrow, and in many cases, the leaders of today. I am of the opinion that you are more than capable and am also a part of those who support you wholeheartedly as you make your way in the craziness that the world sometimes is today. 8-)