Contrary to popular belief, there isn’t a problem with “kids of today." You see, parents complain about kids behaviour exactly the same way they did many years ago.
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
Socrates (469–399 B.C.), which shows our ancestors of long ago felt the same way about children:
In addition, many pro-spanking parents also refer to the phrase “spare the rod and spoil the child” as being from the Bible. However, the phrase in those words originated from
Samuel Butler’s satirical poem: “Hudibras,” which was published in 1662. His poem, and novel called ‘The Way of All Flesh, was written to expose and condemn violence against children
. Yet, it has been adopted by some parents as a means to justify corporal punishment and other physical actions against children.
Many parents of today, and even yesterday, lack the parenting skills they once had. One of the big reasons for this is due to our lifestyles being far from ideal, as far as family goes. Once upon a time, it was a village that helped to raise a child, not just one or two parents.
Parents learned about parenting from a young age, by growing up and observing parenting in their close-knit community. Kids had more freedom to explore, climb, run and burn off pent up energy, rather than fight over Playstation controllers. Parents were much less time poor, and were able to be more present emotionally and physically with their children. Community was everything, and there was much less in the way of behavioural problems.
Today, we have a much more detached, disconnected, unsupported and isolated lifestyle. There are behaviours out of control which are
not due to a lack of smacking, but due to a myriad of environmental factors. These include diet (an overload of sugar, wheat/grains, preservatives, colours and other additives, which create hyped up and unfocused kids),
excessive screen time, parents not knowing how to help their children through emotional storms, choosing to punish them for their feelings instead of talking them through, and parents working crazy hours just to get enough money coming in.
Kids crave regular, quality one on one time with their parents, which is so hard to juggle with modern family life. It’s not an optimal environment for children to flourish. There are going to be repercussions, and punishing the symptom, the communication for help, is going to get us nowhere. Blaming today’s children for this is just folly. Forget the so called fixes, try to understand the root cause.
The above narrative is from an argument:
Smacking Is Proven To Be Ineffective – Here’s 11 Reasons Why It's a much longer article but well worth reading.
