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Incoming rant about the state of parenting these days...
My kids have been Girl Guides for several years, but they're starting to age out of the program. They have frequently complained about disruption by other kids in their meetings, but I didn't really understand until we had a couple of their peers over the other day. My wife is a volunteer with my daughters' local group and she recently hosted a meeting of other parent volunteers who brought over their kids to our house.
My kids hosted these kids in our basement and my kids were pretty upset afterwards because these other kids wouldn't listen and respect the space. They threw popcorn all over our floor and didn't pick up after themselves. One of the parents mentioned to my wife during the meeting that she wasn't able to wash her hair one day because her daughter, one of the disruptive ones who was over at our house, demanded to her mom that she wanted to colour her hair purple. So this parent had to drop what she wanted to do, which was wash her hair, and colour her daughter's hair.
I've been a father for over a decade and over that time, I seldom see fathers on their own in the wild with their kids. Whether it's the mall, restaurants, running errands, etc. My wife recently took a vacation for a few days and other people asked me if I had an issue with managing on my own. I said, "No, my kids listen to me." My kids are not perfect, but they're respectful people. They're self-regulated and understand social situations. They behave when in public. We have structure at home, but my wife and I are not old-school immigrant tiger parents. But, I feel that generally, we've lost the plot when it comes to parenting and the proof is in the pudding. Kids have higher rates of anxiety. Gen-Z can't find jobs and lack social skills.
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