kids today have it easy

Isn't this what every generation says about the next? I remember hearing my parents lament about how they would have to walk miles to school as a kid, through rain and snow...uphill. We were fortunate to get rides or take the bus. However, aren't are parents to blame for making life easier on us in the first place? Weren't they involved in the progress that has happened since their own youth? If our childhood isn't building the amount of character that theirs did, why did they allow our childhood to be so much more sheltered?

Perhaps they had no choice. Perhaps we are all at the hands of marketers, and any old fashioned values that we try to hang onto will inevitably be replaced by whatever is popular on television. Where my parents spent their Saturdays at the cinema, I spent mine playing Atari. My kids watch a lot of television on Saturdays, but I suspect that they would be playing the latest video game if I felt the need to provide it to them.

As parents, we have to decide just what creature comforts we are going to allow for our children. It is not good enough to let the television educate them on what they need and what they don't. If we expect to retain any of our traditional beliefs and cultural values, we are going to have to teach them to our children in spite of what the television might say. It is not going to be easy to compete with the likes of movie stars, but we have to try. We have to determine whether it is better to always try and make our children's lives easier or if it better to let them "suffer" a little through their adolescence (for example). Isn't that what makes us who we are?

Obviously, there are certain new developments that we all would want for our children because they caused us such discomfort when we were their age. For example, I had pretty bad acne and the only acne treatment available from dermatologists involved painful dry ice applications and toxic creams that would dry my face out. Seeing as acne was a physically painful experience for my teenage years, I would be happy if something allowed my children to avoid it. I don't think it would qualify as overt coddling. Will I buy them cellphones because all of their friends have them, though? Doubtful.