Wyndsong Writes

From One-Minute Writer:

Write about a way in which parenting has changed since you were a kid (either based on what you observe, or on what the experts recommend.)

I really like this site because it gives an interesting prompt and then only 1 minute to write about it.  However, sometimes this “prompts” me to write more.  This particular writing prompt today did just that.  I know immediately that what I wanted to say, wouldn’t get completed in only a minute.  So, if I’m going to rant, I’m going to rant on my own blog.  LOL!

This is what I wrote in the comments on the blog:

The major difference is who is “helping” us be parents. when my mom was a kid it was neighbors who helped out, when I was a kid it was family, now it’s mostly the government telling us how to raise our own children. And now kids are feeling more left alone and getting into more trouble… coincidence? I think not!

I don’t know if it came across exactly the way I wanted it to, but the basic idea is there.  I’ve heard stories from my mom, my whole life about how things were when she was a kid.  Sure, she had a little more freedom here and there because her parents weren’t as over protective, but at the same time, all of her neighbors were also watching her.  When she would do something that she wasn’t supposed to do, everyone in her neighborhood got after her, and then made sure that her parents knew what was going on.  She didn’t get into trouble, she got into TROUBLE with everyone!  LOL!

Now, when I was a kid, we lived with my grandmother, and my mom was a single mom who worked a lot.  We knew our neighbors, but it wasn’t like it was when my mom was a kid.  No one from the neighborhood would scold me or tell my mom about my trouble making.  I guess that was during the beginning of the era when neighbors stopped really knowing each other.  But I still had a big family… an extended family that helped out.  There was always someone home who was there to take care of me, or punish me if need be (and it needed be often! hehe).

With my kids though, there’s still an extended family, neighbors definitely do NOT play a part in our lives at all.  Most of the time, our neighbors are at school /work all day and then out eating dinner at night or staying “in” for the evening after a hard day at work.  So there’s no neighborhood interaction.  But there is certainly a LOT Of government interaction!!

From the public schools being mostly day care providers to laws telling us what safety utilities to use just to walk down the street (well not quite, but it won’t be long!), there are more laws telling us how to raise our children then there are for anything else.  What happened to common sense?  What happened to personal choice and responsibility?  Why does the government need to “keep us safe” from all of life?

My mom was always accused of being over protective.. and being a home schooling mom, I’ve been accused of that as well.  But where are these same people saying that the government is over protective?  The government has become so over protective of our children (and the adults as well) that we can’t do anything without there being a law imposed on us for our safety.  It’s ridiculous!  Instead of the government telling us we have to wear padding and safety helmets or get fined, they should just focus on their own actual jobs laied out in the constitution.  Not telling me how to raise my kids, what products to use (by recalling anything that one or two people have been stupid enough to get hurt on), what safety implements to use and when, how and when to teach them, what vaccines to use…. all of these things are NONE of the government’s business!!

That is what I see is the major difference between being a parent NOW and being a parent when I was a kid!  What do you think is the major differences?

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