In adolescence young people try on new ideas. They begin to explore new ways of moving through life. It is a time of flux and flow. At times it can seem like rebellion. And sometimes it is! For parents it means knowing how to pick your battles. It means putting up with things like nose rings and strange music and odd sleeping habits. And it means trusting in the foundation you laid for your child in his or her early years. trusting that the basic values will hold.
A friend of mine frequently suggests that the best way to deal with adolescence would be to lock kids in their rooms when they turn thirteen, and then let them out again when they are twenty. Just slide meals under the door; maybe give them a fresh towel now and then. She's kidding of course. Yet many would like to simply gloss over such transitional times. But we can't, nor should we.
It take patience. It takes faith. Faith in the process, faith in ourselves, faith in in the foundations and basic values we have held for years.
I agree but my concern is this. Have basic values been passed on in enough families to hold onto the best of us as we forge a path forward? As a teacher in Southern, CA., I watched as group by group, year after year....less morals, values and knowledge were passed to the next generation. This was so apparent we actually wrote a class book about it. What happens to a country when children are not really “raised up” but instead are largely left alone to “learn” from video games, media sources or from paycheck care givers who feel their primary, if not only, objective is safety? Many communities, misunderstanding the concept of the separation of church and state, have rallied for public areas void of God (as if such a thing is possible) instead of reaching for all faiths, churches are struggling to fill their classrooms, a redefining of family, that in my opinion, makes effective child rearing far more difficult, free and forever access to government welfare programs, our inability to control our boarders so there is no structure in place for immigrants to learn and identify with our counties basic values, our leaning both socially and politically toward socialism, the many attacks on those who excel and succeed, even our basic understanding of the sanctity of life seems not to be slipping but has slipped away.....Many families, in various ways, are getting the job of systematic and creative child rearing done but many are not. My question is are we at the point where too many generations have missed out on the basic values and modeling that any country needs to prosper and be strong enough to help others? If parents are unable or unwilling to teach and model even the most basic of skills such as problem solving, analysis, applying critical thinking skills, reaching appropriate conclusions as well as lacking in moral and ethical wisdom, not to mention spirituality..... can we call this an adolescence transition or is it something else?
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