And child-centered we indubitably are, like no other people at no other time in history. A major enticement for parents to move, for example, is good schools. Private schools, meanwhile, flourish as never before, heavy though the expense usually is. Parents slavishly follow their children around to their every game: soccer, little league, tennis. Camcorders whirl; digital cameras click. Any child who has not been either to Disneyland or Disney World by the age of seven is considered deprived. Serious phone calls are interrupted because Jen or Tyler needs Mom or Dad now. Attention must be paid.
Nor does it end in childhood. A friend wrote to me about his 16-year-old: “My daughter Hope is a serious rocker, and I’ve been taking her and her girlfriends to a lot of concerts recently. The latest was at a biker-bar-like club in a suburban Virginia strip mall next to a Korean grocery store to see a Swedish metal band called Opeth. It was about 95 degrees in the place, and when I got home at 1:30 a.m., my clothes were still damp and smelled of smoke.” He wasn’t complaining, please understand, merely describing.
One thought on “Kids Come First”
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I am surprised no one has commented on this. I will add my own two cents’ worth, because I am feeling feisty tonight.
Are we all that “child-centered”? I forget what percentage of our citizens living in poverty are children under the age of seven, but it far exceeds their percentage of the population. And a far larger number of Americans without health insurance than should be acceptable, are also children. And this in spite of the fact that we KNOW that healthy kids learn better, and educated people make for more productive adults (business owners and employees).
Just because the top 15% of parents (socioeconomically) cart their chidlren wherever they want to go and make sure they get tickets to professional sporting events, rock concerts, water parks and Disney World, does not mean that we as a country can be called “child-centered”. If we are so child-centered, why are so many of our country’s children going without food (except at school, in most cases), living without much if any supervision (and that cuts across socio-economic boundaries), and not seeing a doctor until they are already sick enough for the emergency room and a hospital stay?