People Have Lost Their Minds

Ok, let me preface this by saying I am not a perfect parent nor do I pretend to know all of the answers and this is simply my opinion but I have been holding this in for a long time now and just have to say it...people have lost their minds. Between the news and social media I just want to move out to the middle of nowhere, grow my own food and home school my children (and not because I think public education is failing)- except I really don't like to get dirty and I'm pretty sure my children have surpassed my educational expertise. But let me get back to the point.

Today I was reading a post on Facebook complete with filmed evidence of a fight at a local high school. People were losing their minds over this. "OMG, I'd pull my kid out of that school so fast" and yada yada yada wrote several commentators. Seriously people, get a grip. Fights have been happening in high schools and middle schools since our grandparents attended school. It's not the end of the world or a sign of the end times. Now don't get me wrong, I do not condone solving issues with violence and there is a difference between weapons being involved or serious battery that would've warranted a call to the police 40 years ago much less today. But come on- hormonal teenagers have been duking it out for ages. The difference is little Suzy couldn't video it on her $300 iPhone and post it for all to see. Back in the day when your mom asked if anything interesting happened at school you simply said "yea, so-in-so got in a fight and has after school detention for a week"- end of story. Today, it's posted within seconds on five different social media sites and CNN if it's a real dinger. Then little Bobby's or Billy’s parents threaten to sue and/or little Bobby ends up with assault and battery charges because he punched little Billy in the eye for messing around with his girlfriend. Kids can’t be kids and parents sure don’t seem to know how to be parents and society has just lost its collective mind.  

Our future generations are a mess. Kids are on anti-depressants at twelve, are disrespectful to teachers, church volunteers, their parents and people in general.  We are already seeing the effects of this entitled narcissistic generation coming out of high schools and colleges today. Yet cowardly parents are so afraid of upsetting little Suzy because she might get mad and "never" speak to them again. Or heaven forbid they check little Suzy's social media accounts regularly because that would be violating her privacy.  Of course little Suzy refuses to add mom or dad anyway to her real social media accounts so they are clueless that she's posting a weekly trashy selfie or dating a 28 year old she met online. Nonetheless these same parents seem genuinely shocked when little Suzy ends up being a total train wreck by the time she's sixteen. Again, get a grip people. It's called parenting. It's supposed to be hard. I can tell you I thought my parents were the meanest, strictest people on the face of the earth when I was a teen. And guess what? I didn't grow up to hate them and "never" speak to them. And I didn't grow up to be a train wreck. Why? Because the two people who raised me actually had common sense and a backbone.  I pray I am resilient enough to have that same level of common sense and backbone. Some days are better than others but I keep on fighting the good fight and certainly have no intentions of backing down because one of my kids might get mad at me.

My point to this whole blog post is as a society we have things so backwards. We freak out over relatively normal kid or teen behavior yet fail to get upset over the things we should. It just seems like common sense is becoming a rarity in society. We live our lives by whatever moral compass we like for that week and yet wonder why our lives are a mess. It’s like everyone has lost their mind.  So I guess this post is really more to say to the fellow parents who still try to hold onto their “I’m the boss” card to press on people. Stay strong. And maybe some of the ones who have lost their minds will find it along the way.