a nation of wimps

That is the title to a book that came out recently about how many parents are setting their kids up to fail because they are over-involved in their lives and are trying to protect them from falling down, getting discouraged, and telling them that they can have as many times as it takes to get it right. I know that at the tender age of 25, I can't exactly sit in my rocker and tsk tsk about kids these days, but I have seen too many examples of kids who are going to never make it because their parents insist on making their lives easy and bailing them out of any unpleasant situation they find themselves in.

I'm not saying I had to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow or anything, but something just gets to me when I see 16 year olds with fresh licenses driving around in shiny new Mustangs, Camaros, and trucks. Granted, my dad did buy me my first car, but it was an 83 Oldsmobile with an AM only radio that I had to switch out myself. I had to pay the insurance, and if it needed repaired, I paid the bill or was out in the garage with my dad learning how to fix it.

Case in point: we had a kid that worked here for about a month. He is a high schooler and drives a fairly new Mustang that he does not make a car payment or an insurance payment on. The other night he was just standing around (which was normal for him) so Jeff's brother got irritated and gave him a job to do. He replied by saying that he was getting picked on for no reason, then he said he quit, clocked out and went home. All because Tim expected him to work while he was at work. What a concept.

The other kid that worked for us pretty much shared the same work ethic. He drives a fairly new car as well. He didn't show up to work last night.

Both boys of course showed up today to collect their paychecks. I asked the second kid why he wasn't here last night, he replied that he quit as well. Then they had the nerve to go out to the cash register to get their checks cashed.

Another lady I know has twin boys that are 17. One has a Camaro, the other has a 3000GT. She and her husband bought the cars for them and pay the insurance. One just recently got a ticket. His mom is paying that ticket and paying for him to take the class to get it off of his record. The other one just recently locked his keys in the trunk of his Camaro (don't ask), and you can guess who paid the locksmith to come and get them out.

Is this seriously our future? The kids that worked here and quit will go home to parents who will tell them "that's okay, you were getting picked on" and continue to pay their bills for them. The other kids will be 30 and still having their parents bail them out of problems.


Is this seriously what we want to teach our kids? "Do whatever is most comfortable and if it doesn't work out, we'll fix it for you and help you blame somebody else." Yeah, that's just what we need, more wimps.

Sounds like a winner to me. Okay, okay, I'll get off of my soapbox now.