I’ve long been a believer in the ‘no-bad-dogs-only-bad-owners’ and it got me thinking about what the generation after me is going to become when they wean themselves of the parental teat? The people who are going to be looking after me in my over priced seniors care facility are the same kids who were leashed as toddlers, received no actual pass/fail grades in school – rather a series of smiley faces and participation awards – and steeped their un-ripened brains in hours of Pokemon and My Little Pony while sucking yogurt out of a tube.
Super.
We are SO screwed.
So this generation who will lead our Fortune 500 companies, rally our consciousness towards social justice, and create the laws that will govern how my golden years play out have been raised in either bubble wrapped helicopter parent environments or complete digital download hands off/eyes up to the screen parenting styles. Where is the mid-grade inattention we were afforded as children that made us into the robust generation WE are? My parents smoked with the other parents at my birthday parties. INSIDE. My 12 year old brother sometimes made me a breakfast of uncooked weiners and a cinnamon bun. I packed my own lunches consisting of a sleeve of crackers and a mismanaged portion of Velveeta cheese and money for a Coke.
Bad-ass to the bone.
I don’t know the global answer to this. It’s naive of me to think that we will be able to absolve this generation of the sins of the Boomers. Sorry Boomers, but I fear you may have squandered your bounty…this doesn’t mean it’s entirely too late though!
Our sole responsibility now should be to raise our own children with a constant understanding and sense of mild foreboding that they are going to be the ones who change YOUR shitty diaper one day. That might sort a few things out as far the decision to leash your child goes.
Remember, the leashed child of yesterday is the mid-life crisis, second marriage adult of today. Thank god for that participation badge, by the way. Clearly, I nailed it.
