I Don’t Understand Parents Today

I don’t understand parents today, that’s right, I don’t understand parents today. Usually you hear stuff from my generation and beyond talking about how they don’t understand kids today. The age of entitlement has created kids who think the world owes them something, they live as though their parents are in debt to them for having them in the first place. That probably has not changed much in the past 20-30 years, what has changed is the parent’s response to their children.

If I would have entered into a conversation with my parents telling them how it was going to be, it would have ended with my loosing the usage of my (errr… their) car, a loss of extracurricular activities, and a solid grounding in particular. When it came to church events, I did not have much choice either. On the Sundays I wanted to skip church, I was met with a father “motivating” me to go or else, which was good for me. When it came to me wanting to skip a major event, my parents put their foot down and I went anyways. When it came to working on Sundays, it was not an option, neither was missing church for sporting events.

At the time I thought it was unfair and that my parents were out of touch. I thought I knew what was best for me and resented my parents for making me go to church, D-Now, camp, or whatever else. However, because of their insistence of my attendance, I understood that God was to take the primary place above all else. You could say they raised me in the way I should go, and as a result, today I have not departed from it.

Today, parents allow their children to dictate to them what they are going to do and my observation is that parents are okay with it. I have heard children tell their parents that they do not want to attend a church event because they would rather be at home, and the parents oblige their children’s desires, as if children know what is best for themselves. I see some of our students take weekend jobs and their parents are okay with it. I even hear parents make excuses for their children as to why they will forgo camp, D-Now, or church, that’s right the parents make excuses for their children to skip out on God’s church.

What I am really curious about is how these parents would respond if their children decided they did not want to go to school anymore. Would they say that their kids preferred to be at home so it was okay, or would they get their kids dressed and march them out the door? If a child said they did not think school was fun or beneficial, would the parents go along with that notion, or would they force them to go anyway? And the real kicker is this, why do Christian parents think educational development is more vital than spiritual development? Seriously, if it is okay to make your child go to school how is it any different to make them go to church?

What gets me is that the same parents wonder why their kids seem to leave God and the church when they leave home. Do the parents not think that their approval of their children skipping out when they were at home will lead to a greater rebellion when they are off on their own? Do parents not think that devaluing church and God as young people, will lead to an abandonment of God altogether when they become adults? Are they clueless, ignorant, or just out of touch?

Like I said, I just do not understand parents today!