What About the Kids?

I wrote the other day about the state of the world and how it's freaking me out. I get so frustrated because I don't know what to do. Bigotry and hatred are rampant. We seem on the brink of war. Again. Climate disaster is close to irreversible. Things are not looking good economically for pretty much everyone I know, especially those like my oldest children who are just coming into adulthood.

What world am I leaving these two?

It's overwhelming.

But I come back again and again to the fact that no one is born an asshole. No one is born to be hateful or greedy or wanting to destroy the world around them. Most children would rather work together than against one another. It's only when they face consistent lack that we see these things - lack of love, lack of basic needs. It's only when children are forced to compete for love or rewards or power that they seek to step on others to get to the top. It's only after having been taught that power is the ultimate goal that they seek to destroy. It's only when they've been forcibly ripped from the things they love that they become bitter and seek to make others miserable too. In spite of what you may have seen or heard, children aren't naturally like this.

It always comes back to the way children are raised. We created this shit show we're now looking at. Unfortunately, at this point, we don't have a generation to ease the refugee crisis, stop warmongering, or deal with climate threats. We're going to have to find some way to handle these issues at least to some degree in the present moment. We can't rely on changing parenting and educational habits to handle the immediate threats to our survival. What we must do to deal with the current situation is another post for another day. Or maybe ten posts.

However. We can stop digging our graves if we'd just change the way we raise and "educate" children. We can change the way we treat a and talk to the ones we already have, the ones close to entering adulthood. We can make it so we are looking at entirely different prospects in a decade. I'll say it again. It's time for the children's rights revolution. Considering how children are treated, it's genuinely no wonder that we have so many monsters in the grown up world.

Pixabay

Does that seem overly dramatic? It's not. It's hard to overestimate the impact of everyone growing up learning that power is more important than people, that it's ok to abuse people if they're smaller than you, that what people care about and enjoy is less important than money and status, that certain pursuits, kinds of knowledge - and even people - are more valuable, that others know better what you need than you do, that you can't even trust your own body, that certain emotions aren't ok, that other people's feelings are more important than your own, that you should always do what you're told, that your opinions about your own life don't matter, that you should never questioned authority, and that the people you love and depend on most are allowed to abandon, abuse, and neglect you, and you can do nothing about it. After 18 years of this, you're expected to go make good decisions for yourself and your life?

We need to allow children to make decisions for themselves. They need to practice what it takes to be an adult. Having the adults around them decide where and when they should go (including to the bathroom?!), as well as what they should learn and think is just ridiculous. They enter the adult world either resentful and angry or totally incapable of functioning as adults. They need to be heard, allowed to follow their passions, and encouraged to join the rest of society to help solve our biggest issues.

So many people think it's so clever to pick on people just entering adulthood and make fun of their inability to adult. I hate to break it to y'all, but they didn't raise themselves. The fact these people can't function says way more about parents and the education system than it does about them.

Pixabay

Stop telling them what they should study or be interested in. Stop telling them what they should think. Stop telling them who they can and can't be - or love. Stop telling them everything is someone else's fault. Stop telling them they don't know because they're young. Stop telling them their ideas are dumb. Stop telling them they can't be what they want to be. Stop telling them art is a waste of time. And for the love of all that's holy, stop doing everything for them.

Start encouraging them to blaze their own trail and think outside the box. We need these kids to be innovators, not mindless robots. Encourage their questions. These are not attacks on your fragile ego. Try to see their perspective - new possibilities. Mostly because we're gonna need them to get out of this mess.

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