There are three pernicious events that have been reported on the news this Summer that convinces me that the “entitlement generation” have now moved into the misnomer realm of parenting.
No rules apply to them or their children! They do as they please when they please! Their wish is our every command!
Here are the Top Three indicators — from this Summer alone! — that you might just be a Bad Parent… and if you happen to tumble into all three… then please give up on your lack of parenting skills and turn your kids over to someone who more rightly knows how to care for them within the terms and conditions of the rest of us.
Number One with a Bullet: Parents visit schools, unannounced, at will, to “deliver” things to their children even though the school or security doesn’t know who they are and they don’t have identification — all of this in the shadow of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre:
SUMMIT — Students who forget lunch or homework will be out of luck in one New Jersey school district.
Summit schools are stopping unannounced visits in the interest of safety.
The district says as many as 400 people visit Summit High School daily.
In a letter to parents, school Superintendent Nathan Parker writes many visitors are parents dropping off lunches, homework, musical instruments and athletic equipment.
Parker writes that eliminating the visits will make the schools safer and teach students to be accountable.
Students who forget lunches will be fed in the cafeteria and given IOUs.
Parents will need to make appointments to see teachers and administrators. Parents also must send notes the day before in order to pick up children.
Second with a bundle of Scorn: Parents sending contraband to their kids at stay away camp even though the camp forbids the items:
I heard more techniques for getting Twizzlers into camps than getting nail files into prisons. Other tips include taping gum into the pages of magazines, stuffing chocolate bars into socks and pulling Tampax out of their cylindrical wrappers and replacing them with candy.
A friend who attended Girl Scout camp in upstate New York told me her mother used three techniques: 1) Empty out deodorant and fill it with candy, being sure to replace the protective cover before putting the cap on to make it look new; 2) buy a box of pens or pencils, dump out the contents, fill with candy; 3) carefully open a box of facial tissues, remove the bottom half, fill with candy, use hot-glue gun to reseal. When I asked permission to attach her name to these tips, she balked. “I still use these techniques to send stuff to my teenage cousins,” she said.
Christopher Thurber, a clinical psychologist and researcher for the American Camp Association, said that at Camp Belknap in Tuftonboro, N.H., where he works, a parent gave a camper two cellphones. “Hand the uncharged one in when they confiscate phones,” the parent said. “There’s a full-charged one inside the teddy bear if you need to give us a call.”
Finally, Point Number Three, bound in Shock and Awe: You need to have a physician write a prescription for your children to eat fruit and vegetables:
Two New York City hospitals are joining a national program that lets doctors write high-risk, low-income patients prescriptions for fruits and vegetables.
The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program — FVRx — turns local farmers markets into pharmacies. Patients receive $2 of “Health Bucks” coupons for each member of the family, and the coupons can be used to buy fresh produce once a week. Health Bucks are redeemable at any of the city’s 142 farmers markets.
Is it just me, or do we sense a lack of common sense in these three parenting scenarios?
Do parents really think they can just tromp unannounced into a school and walk into a classroom and make demands?
Do parents really believe Summer Camp contraband restrictions do not apply to them?
Why must any parent — rich or poor — need to have a doctor’s prescription for fruit and vegetables? Fresh fruit and vegetables should be first on any parental shopping list!
This has been a disconcerting Summer for mainstream new reports on “The New Parenting.” We’re in trouble because these three points of amazement indicate a total lack of common sense and human understanding; and if those values aren’t taught to children in their childhood, then they’ll never be learned or passed along to the next generation in the adult.