What's wrong with the youth of today?

Why is it that everyone from my generation (40 something) or older seems to feel that everything was better when we were kids? Was it really? Or do we as humans tend to glamorize the past, moralize the present and over dramatize the future? I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times before or maybe it was you who said it: Directed to a child - When I was your age we had to walk to school, in the rain, snow, heat of summer, wind of autumn, two miles each way and we never complained! We were so poor we had to put paper/cardboard in our shoes to cover the holes, and there was no such thing as having 9 pairs of sneakers! You had one pair of shoes for every day and if you were from a wealthy family maybe you had a pair of Sunday shoes. Whatever you grew out of, your younger sibling got to wear next. There was no such thing as buying new clothes! Even what you had came from an older cousin, and that was probably made by someone in their family that knew how to sew. And that poor child has to stand there and listen to this rant and be made to feel guilty for the privileges that are bestowed upon them by their parents.


Guilty as charged! Although I must admit, I've never run that particular scenario on anyone younger than me. I do try to be mindful of the fact that in most cases today's youth are not completely at fault for their behavior since they are a product of their family/environment. But if I must tell the truth, I am guilty of telling a few younger people that things were different when I was growing up. I recall telling some teens how when I was growing up, if I wanted something special I had to go to work for it. And I'm not talking about earning an allowance. I didn't have that option since I was fortunate enough to be raised by my Grandmother who struggled just to keep a roof over our heads ( She had all 4 of her Grandchildren to raise), so I went to work at the age of 12. Yes, I forged my working papers to say I was 16, but so what, I did it to help the family. Every time I didn't have to ask for money for school clothes or books or whatever it was that I wanted or needed, I was taking stress off my Grandmother. So I would have lied and said I was 20 if I had to! But my point is, I worked for the things I wanted, as well as many of the things I needed. I learned from a very early age that money doesn't grow on trees and just because your parents/guardian bend over backwards to give you everything, doesn't necessarily mean they should.


I've always believed that what kids need more than every new video game that comes out or 20 pairs of Jordans or a car for their (legal driving age) birthday, is one thing: Time. Kids need time with their family, with the people that love them most and are the hardest on them because they want them to have a good life. Time to talk about how they feel, what's going on in their lives or to just sit and watch a movie together and bond in silence. That's the stuff that makes a difference in who that kid grows up to be. XBox won't turn your son into a man. Mac makeup won't turn your daughter into a woman (although in the case of make up, she will surely THINK she's a woman) if you don't spend that time with her.


I was thinking about this because we have had a tremendous amount of snow here lately. More than I've seen in years. The kind of snow that I remember when I was a teenager. Snow that allowed kids to earn a good sum of money by shoveling their neighbors sidewalks for them. I happen to live in a neighborhood with a large number of young people. I have a grade school and a middle school across the street from my house. So you would "think" oh this is going to be easy! I'll stop a couple of kids and ask them if they want to make some money helping me shovel out my sidewalk and car. Wrong! I forgot to factor in that "most" of these kids come from privileged homes where they are spoon fed every wish/demand they desire. By the end of the fourth snow storm in two weeks I began to grow weary of shoveling. After all, I do have one ruptured disc and 3 herniated discs in my neck from an accident several years back. I shouldn't be shoveling snow anyway, but just because it falls down on it's own doesn't mean it's going to move on it's own. I pace myself and hope for 90 degree temperature jumps lol.


This last snow storm was a little different though. I don't know if something clicked with these kids that they could have even more money in their pockets or what but I did see a number of kids walking around with shovels. Unfortunately the first few sets of kids that passed me were either already too tired to help me, late to get home or realizing it's easier to just ask mom and dad for money than get it this way... and so I carried on. By the time I was shoveling out my car, two 15 year old boys approached me and asked if I needed help. At first I thought I was in some kind of snow induced dream but quickly realized they were really offering to help me. We came to an agreeable price and the shoveling commenced. The funny thing was when I was still shoveling and one boy turned to me and said Miss, please, don't do any of that we will take care of it, you just rest. Sad to say but I almost had to choke back a tear! I haven[t heard someone so young speak so politely in long enough that I can't recall. It was almost surreal. I stood there and watched these two boys go at that snow like a couple of bulldozers. They had my entire car shoveled out and the street clean enough to eat off of in about 20-30 minutes. And I mean snow deep enough that you could not see one inch of my car before they started. It was simply a nearly six foot heap of snow/ice which was made all the worse by the plow packing the car in. The whole time they shoveled they were chit chatting with me about the neighborhood and how if they had known I needed help they would have come sooner. Is it possible that I have help the next time it snows?! One can only hope.


When they finished, I not only gave them the price they asked for but I threw in extra because they did such a good job and were such sweet boys. As they walked away I stood there thinking.... Yeah, What is wrong with the youth of today?





Do you have a feel good story? Something that surprised you and made you smile? Tell me about it. I want to hear from you.

This is:

What now?.... With Paula