When my children were young, ‘nip it in the bud’ was a common phrase in my house. Every generation deals with a lot of the same difficulties, but I noticed that the coming generation, that of my children, were in fact different. Two reasons come to mind. 1) they were the first fulltime daycare generation, and 2) parents overwhelmingly allowed bad behaviors to go without consequence.
Having owned a daycare, I saw firsthand the abuse. Not by the workers, but by the parents. Daycare was used as a Socialist tool to raise children because many parents didn’t want to. Often leaving their children for 12 hours a day, parent’s asked if we would open overnight care so they could – party… Certainly in its infancy daycare had a valuable place as more and more single parents, mostly moms, needed to make a living to support their child(ren).
Soon, daycare became the middle class nanny. And with the advent of classier titles, Montessori, and a media firestorm that saw all children as lost souls unless they were attending Preschool, Pre-K, K and 10 different studies and athletic endeavors in-between, daycare became the norm. In fact, if your child wasn’t in daycare something was terribly wrong with you. Mine did not attend. And so the wealthy stepped in to create an even larger largess of ‘schools’ where rates matched those charged by the uber colleges and universities.
While generations of demise can be tracked back to Socrates and his lamenting of the lost generation, the value of ‘respect’ would seem to be at the core of the millennials’ lost souls.
Children grew up without discipline, without a mother/father guide, without the core and stability a true home atmosphere provides. Instead, they grew up in institutions always surrounded by 10 to 25 other children vying for attention. They grew up screaming at their parents, back-talking, and defiant. They became entitlement seekers whose role models included most of the Hollywood cabal. And without a value structure learned at home, they adopted the one they saw the most – the Hollywood Fantasy.
It is interesting because the blog of Austrialia’s missiologist, Mike Frost, routinely denigrates America and all Americans, most specifically evangelical Christians as though we are the root of all that is bad. However, it is in my church that I see the least of the millennial disease – disrespect. The youth rooted in God are also rooted in virtues and values devoid in the secular world. And sadly, I read it in the soapbox grandstanding of Facebook youth who tell everyone what they need to do while living off the earnings of their parents…
We see it in the screaming secular world of Hollywood, arrogantly decrying in media conversations, and rampantly entitled in feminist propaganda that loves to use history as their platform for maligning and belittling all the peoples of today because they don’t have a heart – like they do – damn it! Whew!
They don’t know how to listen because no one taught them the art. And like each generation before they think they are heads smarter than their elders. Only, each generation before evolved and came to understand the value and wisdom of their elders, this one – not so much.
There is a difference, a sharp contrast.
While some scholars shrug it off as a ‘stage of life’, in so doing they fail to acknowledge that this ‘stage’ is manifested in a particular group and would seem to not exist quite so much in another group, the group that did not grow up in daycare. In addition, this “stage” would seem to have become one that has no evolution. Stagnant. Daycare as it is used today has never existed. There have been nanny’s and household nursemaids, but those were mostly reserved for the wealthy and elite. It is different. Because their upbringing was different. Socialist countries attempt to mandate daycare institutions – Germany, Australia, etc…
When a child is raised by parents, they adopt the values and virtues of their parents, when they are raised by a daycare, they adopt the values and virtues of those teachers in the daycare, and then the teachers in school. Parent’s wonder how they lost their children…
Just like in filing your taxes with the IRS, ignorance is not a defense. I watched my boy’s friends scream at their parents, and even slap them on occasion. Boundaries were nonexistent then – and now. Their only lifeline? Arrogance. Without the humble self-esteem that a parent embodies and teaches, a child creates their own in arrogance, pride and self obsessive attitudes.
Contrary to the pedestal that Mr. Mike Frost preaches from in which America and Americans are the fault and blame for everything universal, this phenomena of disrespect is prevalent the world wide. And would ironically seem to include Mr. Frost… Inviting discourse, but then demeaning anyone who disagrees with the content, is not an open discourse, it is a demeaning one built on Arrogance. His blog demonstrates this.
And while Frost seems bent on dissing America, he would be better advised to take note of Australia’s growing apostasy; 1901 – 92% of population identified as Christian, 2016 – 52% of population identified as Christian with only 25% of those attending church weekly. And as of 2007, it would appear that only half of the Australian government believed in the Bible as only half agreed to use it in their swearing in ceremony.
The virtue of respect is most commonly lost in the sin of Arrogance, and while we are all guilty, some practice humility and repentance while others practice pride.