theregoesdave

In a recent article by the New York Times, technology is to blame for the distancing of our children from their parents. More specifically, text messaging, is what’s causing the American family to disconnect. The article continues on by saying that the kids of today have some sort of advantage over their parental units, based on the fact that cell phones are so small. It’s become increasingly hard to spy or keep tabs on their children’s conversations. New obscure acronyms also used as an excuse to prevent Mom and Dad from figuring out whats being said over the wire.

I’d like to counter by saying, children will always out tech their parents. This isn’t anything new, and its the responsibility of the parent to learn from, take interest in, or at least educate themselves with whats going on in their childs lives. An acronym, I’m fairly certain when typed into google or even an aol search engine will act as a secret decoder ring.

In a recent ATT study, of 1,175 parents interviewed, nearly half learned how to text from their children, and 60% of which agreed it helped them communicate.

As a 30 something reader/blogger, and having discussed the NYT article with my own parents, I, rather we, came to the conclusion that the American family places less emphasis on trusting their own children! We have become a society, largely, of keeping things from our kids. Respect and treat them as adults, and they will respond by learning, and act as such. Educate them with the values consistent with the behavior you wish them to exhibit. Give them space to grow, and they might surprise you.

My high school years were no picnic as far as the relationship between my mother and I. After I left for college in the 90’s, my mom and I actually became CLOSER directly due to our ability to communicate our emotions and feelings in a more concise and less dramatic way: e-mail.

Seriously folks, it’s high time we take responsibility and stop pointing fingers and making excuses.

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