Not 'kids these days'. More like 'mom and dad these days'

Disclaimer : If anything from this post relates to you or offends you, please don't be. You know we're talking about the other parents!

This aunt I know. Apparently she was this extremely fun woman who believed in breaking the stereotype norms and go far. She lived independently and did a lot apparently. But now years down the lane, her daughter is not allowed to stay out after 8 pm, not allowed to drive because it is too dangerous and a whole lot of not allowed to do things.
Fair enough right?

My little niece. Oh she be one adorable doll. So her mom had gotten her morning milk ready in a blue sippy cup. She pushed it away and demanded, “I want the pink sippy cup, not the blue!”. My sister’s face whitens and she rushes to get the preferred sippy cup before the baby throws a tantrum.
Fail! What are you afraid of sister?

I go out shopping with a family friend. Their little boy loves my company (or at least it feels that way with all the fun we have). We are at the Hamleys shop and he picks this fancy jeep toy and demands me to get it. The humble price tag shows an easy Rs.3250. I blink for a bit and he screams his lungs out so that I get it for him. Uncle comes up with “That’s just the way it is with kids these days.”  - typical justification when there is a public outburst. He picks up the jeep and swipes the card at the counter.
Really? Kids are much more capable but it depends on what you show them maybe.

My sister and myself was always tagged NRI (whatever the tag means since each person has a set of characteristics they’ve jotted down in their heads for it). But we have been brought up pretty connected to our close and far family. So on an occasion when I saw that my little cousin brother did not know a close aunt of ours, I explained the relation to him and later told him that we should mingle enough to know our kins. Now, when someone who is not the child’s parent dares to correct him, the mum and dad get upset. They feel the need to project a perfect picture to the world.
Fair enough! Or is it?

The other day I attended my friend’s wedding reception at Chennai. So me and my friends were seated for food and I noticed this girl in the row in front of us. Her mom was trying to feed her but she kept shooing it away and making a fuss. And then her mom takes out her phone and plays some cartoon and rests the phone on the water bottle nearby. The kid begins to eat right away.

I’m all for taking the easy way when you need it. Of course the satisfaction in doing things right even if it is slow is not an important lesson for ‘kids these days’. Is it?

A couple I know have been married for a little more than two years. One fine day their little niece who is just about 7 or 8 came up with her little big doubt. Apparently her other uncle who got married a year back already had baby. Her doubt was, “Why not you guys?”
A genuine doubt isn’t it.

Unfortunately, the parental insecurity is reinforced because many parents do judge one another. If a child is having a tantrum, all eyes turn on the mum disapprovingly. Instead she should be supported, because chances are the tantrum occurred because she’s not giving in to one of her child’s demands. Those observers should instead be saying, “Hey, good work — I know setting limits is hard.”

Children are capable of much more than parents typically expect from them, whether it’s in the form of proper manners, respect for elders, chores, generosity or self-control. You don’t think a child can sit through dinner at a restaurant? You don’t think a child can clear the table without being asked? The only reason they don’t behave is because you haven’t shown them how and you haven’t expected it! It’s that simple. Raise the bar and your child shall rise to the occasion.

When our little ones grow up to be entitled, selfish, impatient and rude adults, it won’t be their fault — it will be ours. We never taught them any differently, we never expected any more of them. We never wanted them to feel any discomfort, and so when they inevitably do, they are woefully unprepared for it. Prepare them for what they need to be successful in the real world and not the sheltered one we’ve made for them.

P.S. : Yes. I’m not a mother yet. But I love children and observing life is my constant pass time.