Happy

If you ask any parent in America what they want for their children, they will of coarse say, "I want them to be happy." What are we doing to our children?

I started to see it in my generation and the people a few years younger than me. People were starting to be more and more insecure. As a whole our decisions were becoming more selfish and our relationships more shallow. But this next generation has got nothing on the Nintendo generation.

It just doesn't seem to compute. I'm still a very linear logic person. But this next generation isn't like that at all. It's not that they use circular logic or linear logic. It's doesn't matter that they don't make sense. It's not that they are stupid kids. They just don't care. It is a generation of instant gratification. They get what they want when they want it. There is no waiting, no saving up, no waiting till you're older, and there is absolutely no way to say "no."

I go to Wal-Mart and the woman next to me has a boy in the cart screaming, "Buy me a watch! You are going to buy me a watch!" This outright demanding goes on for a good five minutes. Mean while she keeps offering him half the store to appease him. And sure enough, she bargins with her child. "If I buy you a watch will you be happy and stop this?" His response, "You will buy me that watch." She does. And I wonder if she will ever learn, or will her boy grow up with things that will make him happy for about an hour before he tosses it aside. I'd hate to be his first wife, or his forth.

We are raising a generation that gets its money from its parents, its morals from Laguna Beach, and gets absolutely anything they want. A whole society with daddy's credit card and this fall's hottest fashions. Their hero's are Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan (God save us). And the worst part is that we are doing it to them. We are raising our kids to have everything that we didn't, and it is crippling them. You send the message that you need to take what you can when you can get it and then wonder why there are so many "hook ups" or one night stands or friends that just have sex with each other. You send the message that just do it now and clean the mess or pay the bill later and wonder why teens are having abortions and cleaning the mess with no moral quams about it.

We are crippling our children with candy bars and watches. We are trading good morals and good work ethic for a cute hat that will go out of style next week.

God save the Queen.