thought for the day

It is that time of the year - lots of Highschool graduations.  We don't know very many within our family/friends but there are a couple kids we want to come to their graduation open houses.  So I went to a store today to look for some cards for them.  I could not believe the messages of those cards, one worse than the other.  All about how "the world is yours to take" and "nothing is impossible if you believe in yourself" and "you did it now go have fun".  It just made me feel sick.  That's not the message I want our kids to have when they finish Highschool.  If anything, the graduates owe us as the nation and it is their turn to contribute, to do their part, and to have realistic expectations of the world too.  I read an article recently talking about  how young adults growing up now are very immature and child like compared to previous generations and mostly because their parents don't let them figure life out.  These parents do everything for and with their kids when they're little without letting them play with just kids, they pretty much bubble wrap the kids too so they wouldn't get hurt, they scold teachers if their kids do something bad, they get into their kids' conflicts with peers or adults and solve them for them, they "help" their kids with tests, getting to the right schools, paying for the college and it goes on and on.  The author is saying how these kids never had to deal with life on their own. Their parents always did everything for them, including hard decisions and now they are grown ups, not getting married, living with their parents and with no direction in their life.  I'm sure this is not to say they're all like that but there is a definite change in how young adults think and view life. 

It makes me think about what we can do now while our kids are still little to help them grow up to be different.  To try things on their own, to take risks and figure things out on their own.  But for that we have to be ok letting our kids fail.  And fail very badly sometimes which is so hard for parents to do, myself included.  I don't want to stand by and watch as my son makes a mistake that will affect his education, career or marriage but maybe that's exactly what our kids need.  Because we don't know how that failure would shape our kids' whole life, how that could be a defining moment for them that they will never have because their parents fixed it for them.  Parenting is just hard and without Grace it is impossible. :)