The times have changed

I was listening to some "oldies" music today and Doris Day came on singing the song, "Que Sera' Sera'".  You know, the one that says "When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother what will I be?"  That started me to think.  These days we tell our children or our students, "You can be ANYTHING you want to be!" or "You can be anything you want to be if you put your mind to it!"  I know we mean well, but should we really be telling our kids they can be anything they want to be?  My parents always taught us the adage, "Anything worth having is worth working for."  I don't think they ever told me that I could be anything.  Let's face it folks, I knew early on that no matter how much I may have wanted to be an astronaut or a rocket scientist, it just was not going to happen.  And believe it or not, no teacher ever told me that I could be one either.  I did pretty well in school in English and History but math and science did not come easily to me.  So no matter what, I knew that I would never have a career as a mathematician or scientist.  It just was not going to happen for me.  But that's ok.  


I think we need to encourage our children to explore different areas and find out where their interest or passion lies.  Then let them know they need to put their mind to it and work hard to achieve their goals.  But as a commencement speaker said recently, "We have become more interested in accolades than achievement."  It goes back to making everyone feel good about themselves so we can't have a winner or MVP so all the kids get trophies.  My other pet peeve - birthday party treat bags.  I wish I could find out who started that tradition and Gibbs slap him/her.  Why in the world should the party participants get a treat?  It should be the birthday child's day.  I hate to bring up how things were when I grew up but here goes.  Getting invited to a birthday party WAS our treat!  We were so excited to get to go to some one's house and play games.  We were also very excited to get a chance to eat ice cream and cake!  That was a treat!  And believe me, you didn't pitch a fit or act up because that could very well be your last invite.


  Sometimes in our zeal to make things better for our children, we have actually made it worse.  We have created a generation where many feel they are somehow entitled to everything.  Instead of helping our children reach new heights, we have caused many to expect the achievements to be handed to them.  We have also shielded them from failure and never let them experience the satisfaction of learning from their mistakes and moving on.  We need to fix this somehow.  It's not too late to start.