Kids These Days

As a parent I am all about raising good kids, with character, self esteem and social skills.  I teach my kids about responsibility, accountability and consequences.  I firmly believe that you train the kids you have.  If you train them that yelling is how you get results, you will be forced to yell to get results.  If you train them that you only get serious after you ask four times for something to get done, you'll need to ask four times to get anything done. 

These little people aren't as complicated as some might make them out to be.  Somehow along the way some parents have forgotten they are in charge, or perhaps being in charge is really hard, or they would rather be a friend to their kid rather than a parent.  I have always told my kids, and I believe that it is way more difficult to be a good parent than a friend parent.  A good parent is tough and draws boundaries, which kids really need.  A friend parent draws few boundaries and wonders why they have out of control children.  A good parent is sometimes called mean....this is fine...this parent loves their child enough to parent them and make sure they are turning an accountable human being out to the world. 

I was inspired to write this post first because I saw a post of Suri Cruise, child of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, using a binky at age 4 or 5.  Honest to God, if your kid can't self comfort themselves at that age, when will they?  These parents should be ashamed of themselves.  Get a backbone and make some rules.  It would appear that Suri has the control in this situation. 

The second thing that inspired me is some recent children of stars heavily bloated self esteem that I happen to come across.  Most notable the Smith children of Jada and Will Smith.  Trey portrayed the Karate Kid, which was produced by his parents, so presumably, he didn't really need to audtion.  His recent performance on the Grammy's, in my opinion was likely bought and paid for by his parents.  He seems talented, but has yet to really earn it in my opinion.  Daughter Willow has been featured on a few shows and she claims her song, "Flip my Hair" will change people's lives.  Yeah, I don't think so.  What I do think is these parents ought to know the tough road that is Hollywood, and instead of filling their kids heads with false confidence, they ought to give them a taste of realism.  

Certainly many of the assumptions I have made are generalizations and all kids are different, but the fundamentals are solid.