Thank God for Obamacare

You remember when you were young and you got in trouble at school? Your parents always told you that whatever punishment you got at school, you got double at home. There would be no questions asked....just punishment. How about if you threw a tantrum in public? Likely you would be snatched up then and there and busted for all the world to see. The same happened if you acted up in church except you either got quietly pinched (and you better not yell "Owwww!") or you would be marched out to the car in front of the entire church and then spanked. Then there was that whole...."Kids should be seen and not heard," in a group of adults and you never talked back to your elders. I don't care what they said. You kept your mouth shut! And as far as entitlement went....we didn't even know the word. As far as we knew....we were entitled to nothing. No one owed us a thing. If we wanted something we worked for it and sometimes we had to work pretty darn hard. There were no handouts and things like food stamps and welfare were dirty words. You took nothing from anybody. You worked for what you had. Funny thing is....with all these rules, corporal punishment and work too, we were still kids. We played outside from morning until night in the summer time. We played hard out at recess during school playing kickball, dodge ball or tag and usually came in looking and smelling like thirsty wet puppies. We went fishing, camping and most of us finished high school. A good many went on to graduate college and become quite successful. To this day most of us still bite our tongues around our elders, don't have a melt down every time life doesn't go our way, and we all have a pretty darn good work ethic, so what again was wrong with a paddle on the butt when we acted up, threw a tantrum or were disrespectful?

So jump the clock ahead to now. The very things that we were told not to do as kids and were punished for will now get you a reality tv show. To be given hand outs is something many strive for and even make it a full time job to get and kids are pasty white with bad eyes because their days are spent glued to some sort of technology playing games or looking at social media. With the banning of corporal punishment, it took authority away from teachers and even parents. Once kids realized that there were no consequences for their actions all hell broke loose. Respect is a word that is almost as antiquated as the action. Kids have no boundaries so they talk to anyone, any time and any way they choose to. They have no regards for anyone especially their elders and throwing a tantrum for all to see (especially if it makes it to youtube) is some how a status symbol. And we scratch our heads and wonder why there is bullying, parent and grandparent abuse, a huge rise in teen promiscuity, drinking, drugs and the welfare system is over run. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure all of this out. Sigh

I'm just wondering when all of this happened? My kids got swatted when they were in trouble...albeit I often had to take them out the way of judgmental eyes so as not to risk getting SRS called on me. My kids were taught to respect their elders and that nothing was given to them. Still though....it is hard to instill these fundamental values when society screams something different. According to new societal rules....you can act how you want in school and there are little to no consequences, but act like a kid and get into a fist fight and you are looking at jail time. Teachers have lost respect because they are either too familiar with the kids and try to be friends or because they try to enforce rules without consequences and the kids just laugh at them. If your kid acts up in church, you better bet that there will be annoyed eyes on you, but dare to take the child out or swat the child right there and those annoyed eyes become judgmental eyes and you risk getting turned in for child abuse. The same goes if you are in a public place and your child decides to push boundaries and throws a fit. Do nothing and you are a horrible parent. Spank the child, swat the child or even scold the child in front of others and you are abusive.

What about reality tv? Millions of dollars have been made in the last decade on bad behavior. First you have the idiots that do highly stupid and dangerous stuff and.....we don't think an impressionable kid is going to try it? Stupid and dangerous is stamped into the DNA of most adolescents and teens. Make it cool to do this stuff by giving it a world wide audience and you have kids risking their lives for five seconds of fame. Brilliant. How about the 16 and Pregnant series? Granted it was originally made to show the rough side of getting pregnant as a teen. What it actually did though was catapult these young mothers into the lime light and make them famous. Suddenly girls were getting pregnant just so they could be on the show. That was an enormous backfire. Then there are all the shows where entitlement was the basis for the show and the tantrums for not getting what they wanted were what the viewers tuned in for every week. It started with the My Sweet 16's where we told our young girls that a 16th birthday party with food, music and a sleepover was no longer good enough. Suddenly girls wanted and expected a party that would rival most peoples weddings. Then there is the whole Bridezilla thing. Granted....getting married is crazy and stressful and it can put everyone involved on edge, HOWEVER there is never a reason to act like some of these women do. They disrespect their wedding party, their parents, all involved in the planning of their wedding and usually and most especially their soon to be spouse. The thing we often learn is that this entitlement they feel is not just during the wedding. It has been life long with no boundaries and no consequences and we just get to see the final product of complete and total permissiveness. Bottom line...everything my generation was taught was negative and destructive is now being spot lighted as a way to get attention and even fame in this generation.

Because of shows like Big Brother, The Real World and Jersey Shore.....shows whose highest percentage of viewers are teens and young adults.....promiscuity, drinking and partying are the norms. People from these shows have become famous world wide for bad behavior and our kids are taking their cues from them. In today's world you are a nobody if you have reached 30 and haven't had either a DUI, an STD or you haven't been arrested, finger printed and a mug shot taken. Forget the days of striving for a college degree and a good job. Those apparently are as antiquated as respect is.

Somewhere along the way we lost our values, our sense of right and wrong and yes......even our morality. We have replaced wanting a secure future for ourselves with wanting five seconds of fame and it really doesn't matter if that fame is brought on by the positive or the negative. We are now raising a generation whose biggest influence is no longer family and teachers, but video games, social media and reality tv. The lessons being taught are not respect for self and others, hard work and education. Instead they are; do what you want, when you want and how you want. The rules apparently no longer apply to them. The scary thing is.....this generation of entitled, disrespectful and fame seeking individuals are our future leaders. All I can say to that is.....thank God for Obamacare! By the time this generation gets into office...thanks to Obamacare....very few of my generation will be left alive to see it!