The Fragile Generation

Tide1986

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http://reason.com/archives/2017/10/26/the-fragile-generation

Bad policy and paranoid parenting are making kids too safe to succeed.

One day last year, a citizen on a prairie path in the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst came upon a teen boy chopping wood. Not a body. Just some already-fallen branches. Nonetheless, the onlooker called the cops.Officers interrogated the boy, who said he was trying to build a fort for himself and his friends. A local news site reports the police then "took the tools for safekeeping to be returned to the boy's parents."

Elsewhere in America, preschoolers at the Learning Collaborative in Charlotte, North Carolina, were thrilled to receive a set of gently used playground equipment. But the kids soon found out they would not be allowed to use it, because it was resting on grass, not wood chips. "It's a safety issue," explained a day care spokeswoman. Playing on grass is against local regulations.

And then there was the query that ran in Parents magazine a few years back: "Your child's old enough to stay home briefly, and often does. But is it okay to leave her and her playmate home while you dash to the dry cleaner?" Absolutely not, the magazine averred: "Take the kids with you, or save your errand for another time." After all, "you want to make sure that no one's feelings get too hurt if there's a squabble."

The principle here is simple: This generation of kids must be protected like none other. They can't use tools, they can't play on grass, and they certainly can't be expected to work through a spat with a friend.

And this, it could be argued, is why we have "safe spaces" on college campuses and millennials missing adult milestones today. We told a generation of kids that they can never be too safe—and they believed us.
 

Elefantman

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Good article. It reminds me of the story of Richard Branson mom who drove him out in the country when he was six years old and told him to find his own way home. I know that is an extreme way of teaching self reliance, but unfortunately, not enough parents are willing to allow their kids to experience failures and hardships to help them grow.
 

Tide1986

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Bazza

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On another forum there was a thread about the labor force and the most frequently mentioned annoyance was the amount of time these hipsters spend looking at their phones throughout the day.

I leave my phone in the truck.......and am very proud at the end of a day when I do not get any calls or messages.

Of course, I'm not in the service business and have all my clients 'trained' to use email, which is checked on my desktop every morning, at mid-day when I come home for lunch, and when I get home.

I know....I am a caveman.....:D
 

MattinBama

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It's far beyond just millennials that have gone to great lengths to create safe spaces for themselves.

This has left them more fragile, more easily offended, and more reliant on others.
This applies to much of our society now. The different groups just get more easily offended over different things and seek to shelter themselves from different information.
 

Tide1986

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On another forum there was a thread about the labor force and the most frequently mentioned annoyance was the amount of time these hipsters spend looking at their phones throughout the day.

I leave my phone in the truck.......and am very proud at the end of a day when I do not get any calls or messages.

Of course, I'm not in the service business and have all my clients 'trained' to use email, which is checked on my desktop every morning, at mid-day when I come home for lunch, and when I get home.

I know....I am a caveman.....:D
Speaking of cavemen, my kids laugh at me because I use keyboard smilies when I text them.
 

Elefantman

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On another forum there was a thread about the labor force and the most frequently mentioned annoyance was the amount of time these hipsters spend looking at their phones throughout the day.

I leave my phone in the truck.......and am very proud at the end of a day when I do not get any calls or messages.

Of course, I'm not in the service business and have all my clients 'trained' to use email, which is checked on my desktop every morning, at mid-day when I come home for lunch, and when I get home.

I know....I am a caveman.....:D

 

DzynKingRTR

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One of the things I have noticed in my line of work is no one picks up a phone to ask a question on a jobsite. Everyone just emails back and forth and it ends up being 12-15 emails of back and forth when a simple phone call would have answered the question. I get copied on everyone of these emails and sometimes the question has nothing to do with me.
 

rolltide_21

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Take away their cell phone and see what happens.......[emoji33]
Every year our church feeds our local football team a pregame meal. The coach took up their cell phones before they came in the fellowship hall. It was quite amusing to see them try and have a conversation without the distraction of a phone.

Seriously, though, there’s some truth to the article, but I do think it’s over exaggerated a bit. I know it’s anecdotal evidence but I don’t raise my kids this way. Nor do I see other parents doing the same. I guess it depends on your context. Different standards in different areas of the country.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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92tide

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when i was a kid, we were told sitting around playing atari all day was going to make us fragile and unable to deal with the real world. from what my dad told me, he was told the same thing about wearing blue jeans when he was a kid.
 

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