Do we Americans do our kids a favor when we

My post, just as a reminder pertains to American kids only as they are the only ones I am familiar with.
 

AZ Jim said:
Some have lost prospective here. My post refers to OUR kids. Our kids are not children anymore. Our children in the 30's and 40's and even 50's are the ones out killing, robbing, stealing and writing bad checks among other crimes. I don't mean THEIR kids are angels but it started with us spoiling our own and them doing the same.
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Sorry Jim, I let myself get sidetracked but in rereading your original post and the rest since, I'm seeing your question more correctly I think. And I think you're right to a degree, when we make it so simple and easy for 'our' kids that they never get real life experience, we are giving them short term benefits but long term, they're more than likely going to run into problems because they haven't really learned about life and how to get through it under their own steam. Solving problems, learning to be responsible, etc. while the problems are relatively small and not life and death (like learning to spend carefully because that new iPhone isn't edible when you can't afford to buy groceries because you just bought the latest model).

In an earlier post I mentioned young people coming to their job interviews with their mothers and apparently this happens often enough that they actually did a piece on it, on a business channel here in Canada. That would be a terrific example of not letting kids learn a host of things, each of which prepares them better for life and work and makes them stronger wouldn't you say?

'Our' children are not all out robbing and stealing but there are a goodly assortment that are and in some cases it may well be because of parents who bent over backwards for the little darlings, and then in turn they are going to be teaching the same lack of values to the next generation. I watched a new tv show tonight about a teacher who was dealing with an annoying, spoiled brat of a child whose parents were doing exactly that instead of teaching their kid to respect others, etc. It was pretty good and she was telling them exactly that, 'your kid is not nice, you cater to her and you tell her constantly how much better she is than everyone else in her class and the result is, she has no friends'.

Isn't that really what parents are supposed to do? Let our children take on small challenges in the beginning and helping them learn when they fail so that when the challenges become bigger as they get older, they don't cave under the pressure? Hard to watch your baby fail though and that doesn't get easier as they get older either.
 
Debby said:
Sorry Jim, I let myself get sidetracked but in rereading your original post and the rest since, I'm seeing your question more correctly I think. And I think you're right to a degree, when we make it so simple and easy for 'our' kids that they never get real life experience, we are giving them short term benefits but long term, they're more than likely going to run into problems because they haven't really learned about life and how to get through it under their own steam. Solving problems, learning to be responsible, etc. while the problems are relatively small and not life and death (like learning to spend carefully because that new iPhone isn't edible when you can't afford to buy groceries because you just bought the latest model).

In an earlier post I mentioned young people coming to their job interviews with their mothers and apparently this happens often enough that they actually did a piece on it, on a business channel here in Canada. That would be a terrific example of not letting kids learn a host of things, each of which prepares them better for life and work and makes them stronger wouldn't you say?

'Our' children are not all out robbing and stealing but there are a goodly assortment that are and in some cases it may well be because of parents who bent over backwards for the little darlings, and then in turn they are going to be teaching the same lack of values to the next generation. I watched a new tv show tonight about a teacher who was dealing with an annoying, spoiled brat of a child whose parents were doing exactly that instead of teaching their kid to respect others, etc. It was pretty good and she was telling them exactly that, 'your kid is not nice, you cater to her and you tell her constantly how much better she is than everyone else in her class and the result is, she has no friends'.

Isn't that really what parents are supposed to do? Let our children take on small challenges in the beginning and helping them learn when they fail so that when the challenges become bigger as they get older, they don't cave under the pressure? Hard to watch your baby fail though and that doesn't get easier as they get older either.
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I see you as having a good grasp of the meaning of my post. Thanks Debby for participating. No wonder I like you....
 
I started working when I was 12 years old. My father had a furniture manufacturing plant and an empty office out front. He converted it to a little store: Chris' Sweete Shoppe"
Being a wise old man, he sold candy, ice cream, bread, lunchmeat , soda, cigarettes and comic books. The store was also the break and lunch room for employees, who owed their souls to the company store. To his credit, he did take all of his relatives out of the coal mines.
 
But to your point, I think the fault lies with our educational system. They aren' t prepared for the work world.
 

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