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Teens Struggling With Less Bling. Solution? More Parent Time
burbia.com — Interesting--"radical"--response to recent NY Times article on economic crisis & kids now having to struggle without "necessities" like iPods, luxury vacations. Author suggests a radical response here: Give kids more quality parent time. It's $-cheap & some teens might even embrace it. Thoughtful personal take from a seasoned journalist & mother.
jaggedwind- 90 diggs
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- AmyVernon, on 10/14/2008, -0/+8Some of the best times I have with my little boys is when we're at the dining room table with construction paper, stickers and crayons and just having a grand old time. Whether the older one's trying to take all the Spider-Man stickers from the little one or the little one's asking me to draw a W for him (he loves that freakin' letter!), we laugh a lot.
- MacBookForMe, on 10/14/2008, -0/+3...or when you cook together, I guess...some warm water, flour, salt, sugar, eggs...
...or washing in the bathroom after long dirty outdoor trip...and spilling water all over...- AmyVernon, on 10/14/2008, -0/+2we have hardwood floors in the bathroom (don't ask!) so the spilling water all over isn't such a good idea... they're a little too young yet for cooking, but my mother-in-law is gonna try making cookies with the older one this christmas...
- MacBookForMe, on 10/14/2008, -0/+3...or when you cook together, I guess...some warm water, flour, salt, sugar, eggs...
- openthink, on 10/14/2008, -0/+4If kid can't get latest iPod/Phone/Stereo he should refuse to talk to parents until they give it to him, no? Uh, seems like some values got a little skewed lately, all over the place. At home, in business, politics, the media. Don't they say on TV we absolutely positively have to have that new idiot power bar/drink/weight-reducer and watch that new idiot hot reality/dumb-as-concrete TV show -- and since they say it there, it must be true. So let's stop blaming our kids and get them all that essential crap so they'll have what they expect and leave us alone....Or maybe not, maybe something else...Like sitting, trying to talk, listen, do something different (yea, baking is probably risky), something anyway...and then get the iPod.
- str3ama, on 10/15/2008, -0/+1long standing problem of parents not spending time with their kids, and instead making up for that by giving kids money. That's how the tween demographic became quite important, they have 100% expendable income and no bills or responsibilities, and poor financial skills since they're not even old enough to work and just get cash from parents looking to offset their guilt by paying or bribing their kids with toys/gadgets. I've heard of elementary school students being given laptops, really expensive cell phones, and worst of all credit cards joined to their parents account - and we're not talking about trust fund kids.
Absolutely disgusting on the parents, and I'm sure every generation says this about the younger generations after them but the latest generation is quite bad, I see young kids every now and then on the subway or in shops and it's sickening that parents don't want to actually parent their children, instead expecting schools, and the media to raise their children. It's no wonder why you get these really badly behaved, socially and financially irresponsible little brats - and on top of all this, what really bothers me is that these kids end up doing stupid things like mimicking things from video games or movies, causing these negligent parents to complain about how video games and movies need to be censored or heavily regulated. Maybe little Johnny wouldn't be swearing at and punching his classmates if you actually did some actual parenting - and if you don't think you can do that - DON'T F**KING HAVE CHILDREN!!
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