Teach your children or the world will
What you need to know:
How do you help a grown man to see and understand that a man has got more to do in life than sleeping, eating, playing video games and flipping through television channels?
He was her younger child and only son. She had just spanked him for bad behaviour. He cried and cried and cried. To appease him and to stop the crying, she gave him soda and biscuits. This was the first time she had ever beaten him.
That young boy recently turned 30. He has not been gainfully employed for quite a while. He loves to stay in his room in the house he shares with someone else who takes care of both their bills. He has some good home skills such as cooking but if he had a way, he would probably never cook at all.
One of his relatives strongly believes because he was his mother’s favourite, her pampering led him to this life of self-destruction. He was very rarely reprimanded and he almost always had his way. As an adult, he hates to be corrected and he sulks and withdraws when anyone speaks firmly to him.
How do you help a grown man to see and understand that a man has got more to do in life than sleeping, eating, playing video games and flipping through television channels?
How do you help him see and appreciate that it is honourable and worthwhile for every adult to fend for themselves. At which point does a grown human being take full responsibility for themselves and for those in their care? I believe it starts at home and with us, parents, who are the primary caretakers.
Today, we must admit that many parents are raising and grooming children to be highly dependent and entitled. As parents, it is our responsibility to love and protect our children from anything and everything. However, this protection, when it is not tempered with common sense, becomes counterproductive. We end up with children that can manipulate and navigate the smartphone without but cannot hold down a job.
There is a breed of children who just do whatever suits them without any consideration for the lives, feelings and concerns of others. Many are unable to undertake the simplest of tasks because they have been shielded from hard work, from working with their hands and brains; they are completely dependent on their parents and caregivers.
We have boys who will not be caught washing a car, slaughtering a chicken or fixing a bulb. And yet life demands those simple skills. May God help us to know that if we are too soft and lenient on our children, the world will not be that lenient. May we wake up and smell the coffee. Our world needs a lot more creativity and tenacity.