How to get $20mil in 5 minutes, RIP Mr. Rogers...

Originally Posted By jonvn

I amazed most 20 something kids can even find a job at all. When I was that age, I worked at a defense plant.

Now, they're busy getting pierced and tattooed, and paying for it with their minimum wage allowance. Meanwhile, people from every other country on earth are coming here to work in the high tech industry.

 

Originally Posted By vbdad55

also many of them were raised with the nonsense of non-competition. Mommy and Daddy won't let them compete in sports unless score is not kept - everyone's a winner mentality. Same for other competitions -- then one day they enter the big bad world and find out, it doesn't quite work that way.

When they were playing not to win or lose - someone in a country far away was playing to take their job - and that is happening with alarming regularity.


but at least no ones feelings were hurt in the process - ;-(

 

Originally Posted By Mr X

Scary, huh VB?

I agree, competition is a good thing.

 

Originally Posted By DVC_dad

Some people would do well to quit looking around for a place to lay blame for their own self created sucky life.

Some parents would do well by their children to actually discipline their children, while taking the time to notice positive and reinforce that equally.

I loathe the whole "It's not my fault" mentality.

My children are never allowed to say "I can't" nor "I hate" nor "that's not fair." I constantly tell them individually how smart they are, how kind they are, how special they are to me and to God.

They get constant doses of this. Because I *with the emphasis on I* have seen the incredible influence a parent weilds over their children.

We talk about trends in education, and there is no question that the stuff John$1 posts about education is very true. BUT... I believe that the breakdown we have seen over time and generations, began in the home, with the nuclear family. We stopped going to church. We stopped holding ourselves to our own commitments, such as "for better for worse, 'till death we do part" we stopped being parents and started being friends to our kids, we quit teaching responsibility and citizenship, we stopped making our kids share and work for things they get.

Sure our kids are bombarded with negative and terrible things from the word GO; however, I believe that if they are prepared and taught solidly at home, then there is a greater chance they will have stability in the world when the world challenges them to conform and stumble. I don't look past my front door
when my child fails a test, or when my child
misbehaves, or when my child does something
wrong. I first look in the mirror to see if I dropped the ball and secondly address my child with tough love
and genuine care.

My kids aren't perfect, heck chances are good that one will end up in jail, but whatever becomes of them, I really believe I will have done all I can, and will have put my money where my mouth is.

 

Originally Posted By DVC_dad

Mr X : I think knightnfrees said it so well when he posted his reply...

<<<Man, that did my heart good to see that. Thanks X for posting that link.>>>

Thank you.

 

Originally Posted By DVC_dad

And another thing... (sorry)

Is it just me or was it waaaay easier and 'simpler' to be a kid back when we who are parents now, were kids?

Or is it just easier to be a kid than an adult?

 

Originally Posted By SuperDry

<<< also many of them were raised with the nonsense of non-competition. Mommy and Daddy won't let them compete in sports unless score is not kept - everyone's a winner mentality. Same for other competitions -- then one day they enter the big bad world and find out, it doesn't quite work that way >>>

Ain't that the truth. Just to cite a couple of examples: I saw a "fun run" type of thing for kids, where they ran some appropriate distance for kids of that age. They each had one of those large numbered squares on their front and back as runners do in a race. The thing is, each kids was "number 1." Also, it seems that kids sports leagues these days award a trophy to each participant on each team in the league. When I was a kid, the winners got the trophies. Having a trophy in your room signified that you had won something, not that you had just participated.

And, I've seen this taken to an extreme. I know of a private school (well, it may have been a charter school) that was started by parents that didn't believe in tests. And I'm not talking about standardized tests - this school didn't have ANY tests, ever! Kids were encouraged to learn a loosely-structured environment about whatever interested them. Looking a bit in Google, I see that this is known as the "free school movement" and it appears to be a product of the 60's, and now on the wane:

<a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/19/america/NA_GEN_US_Anarchy_in_School.php" target="_blank">http://www.iht.com/articles/ap
/2006/11/19/america/NA_GEN_US_Anarchy_in_School.php</a>

 

Originally Posted By threeundertwo

>>Or is it just easier to be a kid than an adult?>>

I think in general that's the case. Fewer mortgage payments when you're a kid.

I agree wholeheartedly with post #44.

In our house, allowance consists of base pay - doing what's expected of you, including practicing piano, and a bonus structure based on how much you contribute to running the house. My youngest daughter gets up every morning, empties the dishwasher and makes all the lunches. She gets the bonus every week.

At first I thought it was a weird system, but my husband (in the high-tech industry) insists on structuring it like the real world. We're trying really hard not to raise kids with the sense of entitlement we see so much in this area.

My kids aren't perfect either, but they're pretty spectacular.

=)