There are many theories why kids today are so bad. Some say it’s peer pressure. Others blame it on Facebook and Twitter. But, my analysis concludes kids today are bad because they lack discipline. Rather than study, play stickball in the streets and go to church these little suckers swear, wear booty shorts and terrorize neighborhoods.
The lack of tough love and old school methods of raising children has caused poverty and cultural dependency. Instead of raising children who can function as responsible adults, we are raising a generation of children who will never learn to live on their own. Although I am not a parent, I have worked with and mentored young children and believe you might not get your child out of the hood, but you can get the hood out of your child.
The other day I was riding the X2 bus. It was crowded like normal on this ride from hell. No one showed any respect for the elderly by letting them sit down. But, what made me really hot were the teenagers. Some had their feet on the seats not allowing other passengers to sit with them. Others wore pants hanging down so you could see their drawers. One was talking about smoking angel dust laced with Viagra. A beautiful light-skinned young woman straight out of the hood spent a half hour yelling “m-effer” into her phone and talking about every sex position known to man.
These buggers don’t know how spoiled they are. They disrespect people, swear, wear skin tight shorts with big butt on both cheeks, and walk around with their pants around their ankles. They are lucky they weren’t from my generation. Parenting was different back then. There were no groundings or timeouts. When you cut up or “showed your ass,” as we called it back then, parents would straighten you out in a hurry. Don’t get me wrong; I am not advocating child abuse in any way. But, it seems to me that some kids today are in need of some GOD-good, old fashioned discipline.
Maybe I am old fashioned, but I am a product of the post-Civil Rights era. I was born in 1969, BC- before crack. Back then, you didn’t talk back to your parents, hang out in the streets all night or sleep with your boyfriend in your parents’ house. In the inner city in New Jersey, parents didn’t want their kids hanging out with thugs and wouldn’t stand for their 15-year-old daughters dating some 25-year-old losers.
I think it’s time we brought a little bit of Joe Clark back into our culture. Remember the tough-as-nails principal of East Side High in the ‘80’s featured in Lean on Me? His in-your-face style of tough love drove out the drug dealers and forced kids to see the real world consequences for their choices. “If you can’t take care of a baby, don’t make one,” he told the girls at his school.
I believe it takes tough love to mold and shape a child. I lived in a community that disciplined us if we misbehaved.
Parents and adults wouldn’t stand for kids not showing respect. It might not be politically correct, but unless we start teaching our kids how to act like adults rather than wannabe thugs, we will be stuck with generations of 30 year olds sleeping in their moms’ basements playing video games paid for by their minimum wage jobs mopping the floor at McDonald’s.
