Parental Epidemic
So, it seems i've reached a near tipping point. i haven't exactly done the math, nor do i intend to*, but i am nearly to the point where i have as many friends with kids as friends without.
It started out so nicely - i was in my twenties, and had a couple of friends who were my "friends who had kids" friends. You know, like how some people have (insert name of loathed political system) friends. Not that i'm thirty it doesn't seem to work like that anymore. Perhaps it is for the best that i remain single, as there seems to be a rather nasty bug of couples expecting going around. Don't get me wrong, i think having kids is awesome and hope to do so myself one of these years. i'm at the point where the majority of babies i meet seem to like me, and my paternal instincts keep reminding me of how partnered i'm not. Rob Gordon said it best: "We were frightened of being left alone for the rest of our lives. Only people of a certain disposition are frightened of being alone for the rest of their lives at the age of 26, and we were of that disposition."
But then i tend to think about parents these days and how much they all seem to suck - particularly those whose kids are in the preschool to early elementary ages. The Xers who you'd think after years of their wonderful slacker rebellion against the insane excess of the Boomers wouldn't subject their progeny to heliparenting do, often to ridiculous results. What happened to the kids who rode bikes everywhere, played sports sometimes (and usually in the street), and thought of Nintendo as a wonderful event which to look forward to when they could get away from the watchful eye of parents who thought gaming was for degenerate suckers (like mine seemed to/seem to. Even though my mom has played Guitar Hero and i haven't)? i'm not sure which idol that current parents have latched onto these days is worse: the fear of multiple predators on every single block, the ease of having their kids sit in front of a gaming system and walking away for hours on end while they work off the mortgage on the McMansion they never could afford, or that they simply must impose the chains of their narcissistically important overly-scheduled lives on their kids.
i mean come one, playdates and scheduled activities accounting for every hour of every day?! You're supposed to be parents, not Personal Assistants. And don't even get me started on the being afraid of everybody and media for babies.
i sincerely hope that my friends and, well, the coming generation of Y kids who are looking into becoming parents themselves will move on beyond the trappings of suburban idiocracy and actually be parents. i hope that for myself as well. Someday. When i can look back at this and shake my head.
*what, me do research? If that's what you're looking for, i'd suggest you look here.?
It started out so nicely - i was in my twenties, and had a couple of friends who were my "friends who had kids" friends. You know, like how some people have (insert name of loathed political system) friends. Not that i'm thirty it doesn't seem to work like that anymore. Perhaps it is for the best that i remain single, as there seems to be a rather nasty bug of couples expecting going around. Don't get me wrong, i think having kids is awesome and hope to do so myself one of these years. i'm at the point where the majority of babies i meet seem to like me, and my paternal instincts keep reminding me of how partnered i'm not. Rob Gordon said it best: "We were frightened of being left alone for the rest of our lives. Only people of a certain disposition are frightened of being alone for the rest of their lives at the age of 26, and we were of that disposition."
But then i tend to think about parents these days and how much they all seem to suck - particularly those whose kids are in the preschool to early elementary ages. The Xers who you'd think after years of their wonderful slacker rebellion against the insane excess of the Boomers wouldn't subject their progeny to heliparenting do, often to ridiculous results. What happened to the kids who rode bikes everywhere, played sports sometimes (and usually in the street), and thought of Nintendo as a wonderful event which to look forward to when they could get away from the watchful eye of parents who thought gaming was for degenerate suckers (like mine seemed to/seem to. Even though my mom has played Guitar Hero and i haven't)? i'm not sure which idol that current parents have latched onto these days is worse: the fear of multiple predators on every single block, the ease of having their kids sit in front of a gaming system and walking away for hours on end while they work off the mortgage on the McMansion they never could afford, or that they simply must impose the chains of their narcissistically important overly-scheduled lives on their kids.
i mean come one, playdates and scheduled activities accounting for every hour of every day?! You're supposed to be parents, not Personal Assistants. And don't even get me started on the being afraid of everybody and media for babies.
i sincerely hope that my friends and, well, the coming generation of Y kids who are looking into becoming parents themselves will move on beyond the trappings of suburban idiocracy and actually be parents. i hope that for myself as well. Someday. When i can look back at this and shake my head.
*what, me do research? If that's what you're looking for, i'd suggest you look here.?