I firmly believe that with the constant deluge of information being shoved at everyone from so many sources, it is TRULY IMPOSSIBLE for parents to keep up explaining the world to their kids. It's unnatural. ...Unless you want to be some ostricized Amish clan or something and set your child up for ridicule from peers.
It really is not good for human beings to live like this.
Parents can TRY to take responsibility but that pond now is an ocean and parents are in too deep. I don't know the solution. My personal solution is to cut back the avalanche of info [no cell, no cable, no news, rarely any TV] but people are too grown believing they can not live without constant info influx.
Topically, Hollywood is a big part of this problem. They even help reduce parents role... even if the parents ARE trying to keep up
PArents are still in charge of what their kids are exposed to, what movies they see, what TV they watch. So ultimately it's still about the parents maintaining.
My Aunt used to pause a scary or controversial maybe disturbing scene in a movie and quickly ask us kids what is going on in the film, what motivations would there be, why is the film maker showing us this and whats the meaning. In short she would turn movies into film school critiques... Worked wonders though for firmly and squarely fixing FILMS in my head as stories, not reality, not a model for life...
And just how do parents maintain strict control over what their children access when they are only around them 10% of the time these days? Back in the day, "Playing" consisted of a large cardboard fridge box and a bunch of imagination. Now, "playing" consists of media bombardment and online communications [or texting] with many more disreputable sources.
If you look at the children as a whole of today [not every single one, obviously] it IS obvious parents are failing... school shootings... pregnancy pacts etc etc. It's not that they are not trying, but the deck is stacked against them. And they are NOT winning.
We can TELL parents it is ALL up to them, but they won't win when the finish line keeps getting moved. Maybe the AMISH are on to something?
I did come up with a viable solution to this issue last night:
Restructure American society.
Children go to school all year long when they start, are educated the same amount if not more and graduate and join the work force or go to college at 14 - 15 instead of 18. Why? Because they are technically adults by the time they are able and highly interested in procreating. The 14 years of learning WOULD ALSO bring them to the experience level of 18 or 19 years old 'adults'. So, let nature be the way it was designed to work and not muck it all up with "OUR" ideas of 'being old enough to know'. Right now we give them too much free time to get into things and screw up their lives. If they want to have a child at 14, then fine. They are ready to hold down a full time job and support themselves and their family. Think of how many jobs a 14-15 would be able to handle... especially the physical labor type of stuff. nothing builds character like actually WORKING HARD doing physical things and viewing your own accomplishment. Kids are capable of, and often do, procreate when their bodies tell them they can. MENTALLY they are not ready, because our society is the one keeping the kids emotionally and mentally not ready. They're bodies say otherwise. Heck, they could even go off to war and be very effective, agile, skilled soldiers. Think of how many child prodigys have come from Japan and the like: 10 year old concert pianists and violinists etc etc These kids were shown and adult directed towards purpose in life an worked hard at it. "But they didn't have a childhood!" ... childhood? You mean forming clicks to pick on each other, anorexia, violent crimes, pregnancy, filming abuse to post on youtube? ok. There are also positive social side effects to this plan: think of how relationships form and bond... youth would be falling in love and most likely STAYING THERE instead of bothering to sleep around - they would be bonding and GROWING together instead of getting all grown up and then experimenting, seeking the best catch or most money. They could fall in love naturally, grow together and not worry about the grass being greener. For those of you thinking "Pedophilia" and such, you are being to narrow minded about the overall concept here and the blatant realities of life... did you not see the news? "17 girls below 16 formed a pact and GOT PREGNANT" It happens already. They could not do that at age 8... before they could reproduce. Had to wait until they were old enough or "adult age" to have babies. They do it anyway. Maybe it wouldn't happen so much if we had them focusing on the right things, longer, and starting out earlier.
