Parenting 2014

I am constantly amazed with the people that I see on FACEBOOK, at church and in the community give comments about how Baby Boomers were/are bad parents. A FACEBOOK post by a Christian that I respect had this post:  "How baby boomers ruined parenting forever: "A good parent is said to "provide" for children. It is no longer enough to simply love them. Love is the sidebar to achievement, an insufficient defense against an unyielding future. That is the cruelest legacy of the helicopter parent, one that will endure long after the smoke has cleared."

I sent a response as follows: "If you think we Baby Boomers were bad parents, you should have witnessed our parents. It would put things in perspective to have parents from the depression era!"

NOTE: I have never and don't plan to start telling others how to parent.  I never thought I was very good at it because one of the things I was taught early that messed me up was that: MY JOB WAS TO WORK AND PROVIDE.

I AND OTHER BOOMERS DID NOT INVENT THAT IDEA.

We were taught it by our parents generation who had survived a Depression, World War II, and the Korean War.  As for my situation, my parents had 10th grade educations. My dad worked 2 jobs his whole life and found time to be Mayor and an Elder.  My Mother worked most of her life and also worked on the Election Board and found time to help with Cub Scouting.

The other day  after telling my Mother about our day going to the Grandson's football games, she commented that her and dad never came to my little league baseball games.  I commented that I would ride my bike across town to the ball field and get in the back of a pick-up with 10 others kids and go 20 miles to a game at night.  (That started at 8 years old.)  They did watch me play football in high school but did not come to basketball or baseball games. 

Kids like me did not have a lot of training about the future or families. We were taught to work. I started mowing lawns as soon as I could handle a mower. By ten years old I mowed about 4 yards a week. At 14 I was working summers at the local Canning Company loading trucks!  I also had a paper route and worked for the Chamber collecting tickets from local businesses for the weekly drawing downtown.

When college came, it was up to me.  As was most things.  Sure, I knew I was loved, but I was raised where the words not said and kisses and hugs were not witnessed.

I might also add that being in the first TV generation was a major factor. It was my parent's generation that showed us and told us kids all the things that "we could not live without."  AND when we asked for them our parents said, "Go to work."

Naturally when time came to have kids, we wanted  them to have it easier!

So when people accuse our group of being bad parents, I won't disagree. WE didn't have a chance.

P.S. This is especially on my mind today since my first child died on this date in 1979. 
She would 41