Old people are always
saying that the young are not what they were. The same comment is made
from generation to generation and is always true; it has never been
truer than it is today.
These days, grown-ups describe children as
«difficult», «rude», «wild» and «irresponsible». Only some people say
that they will grow up to make our country a better place.
For kids
from 8 to 14 a new term «tweens» has recently been coined. They are no
longer children nor yet teenagers, just between – tweens. They are said
to be a generation in a fearful hurry to grow up. Instead of playing
with Barbies and Legos they are interested in the vagaries of love on TV
serials. Girls wear provocative make-up. At this very age kids start
pairing off. Tweens have got an insatiable desire for the latest in
everything – from jeans with labels so that everyone will know that
they've got the latest stuff – to CDs. Kids at their age desperately
need to belong and that's why everything comes down to appearance. They
think that having the right «stuff» is the quickest way to acceptance.
To parents and teachers they can be a nightmare, aping the hairstyles,
clothes and make-up of celebrities twice their age. Experts say that the
rush to grow up is due to the mass media. Being raised by single-parent
families as well as watching TV, which sucks up most of their free
time, can also accelerate the desire of children for being independent
and creates behaviour problems.
But the most painful part of
childhood is the period when they begin to emerge from it: adolescence
or the awkward age. There is a complete lack of self-confidence during
this time. Adolescents are over conscious of their appearance and the
impression they make on others. They feel shy, awkward and clumsy.
Feelings are intense and hearts – easily broken. Teenagers experience
moments of tremendous elation or black despair. And besides friends are
becoming more and more important these yeas. At schools there are
cliques who decide what is «cool». Adolescents may rebel violently
against parental authority, but this causes them great unhappiness. And
they are not always helped to get through a confusion of life in a
steady, productive way. But even teenagers with sympathetic and
supportive parents can fall in with bad company.
Most children
don't belong to any clubs and they just start roaming the street after
school out of sheer boredom. A lot of them become addicted to drugs
and/or alcohol because their life is hollow and they don't think of
life-long goals. They have nothing to fill the emptiness of their souls
with. They demand to have all that they see, and regard it as their
right to be entertained every waking moment.
And besides our
society is becoming more and more stratified. There has appeared a class
of rich people and a class of poor people (to be more exact – people
leaving below the poverty line). Children of well-off parents consider
themselves «the smart set» or «gilded youth». Their parents give them
every material benefit, pocket money any time they ask. A lot of these
children have their own brand-new cars and personal computers. It goes
without saying that it causes jealousy and the desire to possess the
same things on the part of children whose parents are poor and cannot
afford it. Such feelings can push teenagers to committing a crime and it
leads to a wide spread of juvenile delinquency.
Nowadays children
start using computers very early. Tweens and teens are so fascinated by
them that they spend hours and hours at their personal computers or at
computer clubs. The electronic universe replaces their contacts with
friends and dominates their life completely. Obsession with computers
brings about a mechanical, disillusioned mentality and inhibits their
emotional development.
The heads of youngsters are also being
filled with violent pictures they have seen on TV. Children are very
naive and impressionable. And no wonder that they are so aggressive and
arrogant in real life. They are thrown into such a harsh world,
especially if they live in a city.
These days a lot of parents
think that they should be lenient with their children, they should let
them find out about life for themselves, they should leave children to
develop their own idea of right and wrong. But it's a grave mistake.
Parents should try to protect their children from possible bad
influences and give them clear guidance about right and wrong.
There is no way to predict how today's children will turn out. Keeping
faith in kids is necessary. They are not bad. They are optimistic. They
expect to have a better life than their parents'. And grown-ups – if
they are prepared to admit it – could learn a thing or two from their
children. One of the biggest lessons they could learn is that enjoyment
is not «sinful». Enjoyment, is a principle you could apply to all
aspects of life. It is not wrong to enjoy your work and enjoy your
leisure, to shed restricting inhibitions. It is surely not wrong to live
in the present rather than in the past or future. This emphasis on the
present is only to be expected because the young have grown up under the
constant threat of World War III, which means complete annihilation.
This is their «glorious» heritage. Can we be surprised that they
question the wisdom and sanity of their elders?
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