Generation Stupid -- Yep, it is as it appears to be...

[Coito ergo sum]

I notice things my friends do with their kids that bug me:

1. Excessive "choosing." I fucking HATE when people let the kids go through an endless routine of letting their brat choose what to have for dinner, for example. I don't know how prevalent it is, but making special meals for each child seems to me to be rather wrong-headed. Eat the food we have for dinner, god damn it! Don't like it? Don't eat it. Go to bed.

2. Constant doting and praise. Stop it with the "you're so smart..." nonsense all the time. Praise accomplishments, but I think constant praise for every little thing is self-defeating. It gives a person a sense that the accomplishment is done and no more work is needed. It's probably why the study I linked to says that kids have high opinions of their math ability, when they really aren't as good as they think they are.

3. Teach them how to do things for themselves. Please folks, don't let your kid be 13 years old and not know how to put the chain back on his bicycle. It's fucking embarrassing.

4. Teach them how to handle criticism. A big shocker is often felt by college kids and first time jobbers that they've never felt before. Criticism of their work and behavior that may not be all touchy-feely and may not dance around their feelings.

5. Let them fall down. Kids need to learn how to take a hit every now and again (not corporal punishment, but impact in games and sports). They'll be o.k. If they get a scrape, don't pretend they're going to die. They need to learn to "suck it up."

[hadespussercats]

Then smack 'em around, and berate them. Put some muscles in their shit.

[Coito ergo sum]

Then smack 'em around, and berate them. Put some muscles in their shit.

...that'll learn 'em!

[Robert_S]

We seem to swing back and forth from Bobby knight to Mr Rogers.

[Blind groper]

I was a teenager in the 1960's. So much of the bullshit being spread around in this thread looks really familiar. In my teenaged time, the older generations were saying pretty much the same things, with about as much merit. ie. None.

Kids are kids at all generations. Adults are adults and will criticise the kids, while forgetting what little shits they were at the same age.

[Jason]

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm talking about Uni students*. Not teenagers.

*Undergrads specifically.

[Coito ergo sum]

I was a teenager in the 1960's. So much of the bullshit being spread around in this thread looks really familiar. In my teenaged time, the older generations were saying pretty much the same things, with about as much merit. ie. None.

Kids are kids at all generations. Adults are adults and will criticise the kids, while forgetting what little shits they were at the same age.

Well, I tend to agree with that. However, the study in the OP does provide some empirical evidence that the cultural zeitgeist has changed a bit.

but, your point is well-taken. In 1942, the young American male was said to have been too soft to fight, and that what we call now "The Greatest Generation" were lazy and spoiled. So, I totally get that point -- the current generation of adults always think the "kids today" are more rude and disrespectful, lazier and dumber than kids were in the "good old days," which, of course, never existed.

...but, a nagging feeling within me thinks that there is something to it...my experience with my friends and their children seems to bear it out. People seem, in my view, to coddle kids more today than in my generation and earlier. There is much less unsupervised play, far less discipline and far more accommodation of the "now" demands. It seems kids don't really have to wait earnestly for the Red Ryder B.B. gun anymore -- whatever toy they want nowadays, they normally get.

But...then another nagging feeling within me says.... stop yer bitchin' old man! When you were a kid, the adults then thought your generation were lazy, spoiled and coddled! LOL.

So, in short. I'm torn on this issue.

[Coito ergo sum]

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm talking about Uni students*. Not teenagers.

*Undergrads specifically.

the stats I've seen about university students seem to me to clearly show that most of them are pretty fucking stupid. Not sure that's different now than in times past...

...but, employers do complain about students not knowing how to work, and having a serious sense of entitlement. That rings true to me. But, it may be just my own age coming into play....

[Gerald McGrew]

Funny thing is, when I was a kid I was assured by all my older relatives that I wouldn't even reach the age where I could have kids. They were absolutely convinced that before I reached adulthood, the rapture and Armageddon would happen. I don't know how many times I was told, "You will be the last generation".

[Jason]

That's a big part of the problem I think. A lot of religious types see this as God's work to end the world or something.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Funny thing is, when I was a kid I was assured by all my older relatives that I wouldn't even reach the age where I could have kids. They were absolutely convinced that before I reached adulthood, the rapture and Armageddon would happen. I don't know how many times I was told, "You will be the last generation".

A gal ran a Ouija board when I was 15 and said I wouldn't live to be 23. When my Mom got the first KIA/BNR telegram she came over and said she was sorry. Mom punched her in the nose.

[Twoflower]

There is a guy I worked with who is the same age as me and blames all his problems on everyone/everything else. Nothing is his fault, and all of his "problems" are because of other people. It's the polices fault he has a suspended licence for drinking and driving, not his, he has a crappy job because no where good is hiring, not because he won't apply himself. He drove me insane.

[Gerald McGrew]

A gal ran a Ouija board when I was 15 and said I wouldn't live to be 23. When my Mom got the first KIA/BNR telegram she came over and said she was sorry. Mom punched her in the nose.

The telegram was for you? Obviously you got better.

I once lost a group of friends over a Ouija board. They swore it worked and they were in regular communication with a dead girl ("Sarah"). After watching one reading I made one simple request...put blindfolds on and do it again. They were so pissed off, I never heard from them again.

[Robert_S]

but, your point is well-taken. In 1942, the young American male was said to have been too soft to fight, and that what we call now "The Greatest Generation" were lazy and spoiled. So, I totally get that point -- the current generation of adults always think the "kids today" are more rude and disrespectful, lazier and dumber than kids were in the "good old days," which, of course, never existed.

...but, a nagging feeling within me thinks that there is something to it...my experience with my friends and their children seems to bear it out. People seem, in my view, to coddle kids more today than in my generation and earlier. There is much less unsupervised play, far less discipline and far more accommodation of the "now" demands. It seems kids don't really have to wait earnestly for the Red Ryder B.B. gun anymore -- whatever toy they want nowadays, they normally get.

But...then another nagging feeling within me says.... stop yer bitchin' old man! When you were a kid, the adults then thought your generation were lazy, spoiled and coddled! LOL.

So, in short. I'm torn on this issue.

Reality will take care of toughening up the kids soon enough.

Meanwhile, in the shitty neighbourhoods...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

A gal ran a Ouija board when I was 15 and said I wouldn't live to be 23. When my Mom got the first KIA/BNR telegram she came over and said she was sorry. Mom punched her in the nose.

The telegram was for you? Obviously you got better.

I once lost a group of friends over a Ouija board. They swore it worked and they were in regular communication with a dead girl ("Sarah"). After watching one reading I made one simple request...put blindfolds on and do it again. They were so pissed off, I never heard from them again.

They kinda lost track of me once or twice. Assumptions were made based on other bodies recovered.

I was fucking that gal with the Ouija board, that may have been why she made the prediction.