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You know what? I think we’ve forgotten to ask a very important question. We’ve been asking what can the education system do to help prepare children for the 21st century. There are lots and lots of debates and suggestions about what skills and tools our children will need to meet the challenges that arise as the 21st century unfolds. Just Google and you will be overwhelmed by it all. I think, though, we’ve forgotten to ask another very important question. What are parents doing to prepare their children for the challenges of the 21st century?
A study
published last month in the Journal of Marriage and Family and funded by The National Institute of Aging, looked at the relationships of 633 Philadelphia-area parents, aged 40 to 60, and their 1,384 children, aged 18 to 33. The authors found that many of the grown children were having trouble weaning themselves off the parental teat: 76 per cent got domestic help monthly, 79 per cent got money most months and 93 per cent got a check-in chat or other emotional support weekly.
How is all that support helping young adults become independent? Are these parents doing this to fulfill a need they have? How independent can you be if you are still depending on Mommy and Daddy? Are these young adults like Peter Pan and never want to grow up?
Educators are trying to find ways to help students become independent thinkers and risk takers so they can meet the challenges of the 21st century. Our report cards even evaluate kids on things like initiative and work habits. Initiative and works habits are valued at school, why not at home? It seems teachers and parents like those in the study are working at cross purposes .
Why are some parents encouraging their children to remain dependent and helpless? How is this going to help their adult children cope with life? This major enabling sounds like a recipe for disaster. Are the majority of young adults going to think the 21st century is a century of entitlement- theirs. ? Are parents encouraging their children to become narcissistic? That doesn’t bode well for the future.
I suppose you can argue that life is more complicated now and our children need our support longer, but
If you spend 10 formative years at your peak capacity depending on other people, that has to set up a habit of how you behave in the world,” said Joseph Allen, a clinical psychologist and co-author of Escaping the Endless Adolescence: How We Can Help Our Teenagers Grow Up Before They Grow Old.
I am concerned. Am I missing something here?
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