Societal Miscommunications

As a parent of teenagers, I’m struggling right now with societal miscommunications and particularly the concept of work ethics in 2019. Two of my children are working more than 30 hours per week in labor-intensive jobs, and I’m very proud of them. However, on the back side, I also have to deal with lots of long sighs, ugly looks, deep-throated grumbles and even some whining because they’re growing up in a society that feels like kids shouldn’t have to do too much. And many of their friends subscribe to that idea by spending their nights staying up late and their days sleeping or playing on their phones. I think I’m getting old. I find myself saying things like, “When I was your age …” (and that’s not attractive on anybody)!

So how do we balance what we know is right for our children and our society versus what that same society pushes as acceptable and forgiving? Like your own children and grandchildren, I can definitely be a bit of a helicopter parent. I hover and soothe, try to protect and do my best to give my children a happy, healthy childhood. But there are truly times I just want to kick them in the butt and tell them to get over it!

And as an employer, it’s very difficult for me to hire that person just out of high school who does not value their job, my time or those with whom they work. In fact, what I’m seeing is that they do not, in the long run and for the things that really matter, value themselves.

Society is talking out of both sides of its mouth. Every day, we see advertisements stating life is all about fun and living in the moment! And while a part of me believes life is only as fun and amazing as you make it, it is our job — no, our moral responsibility — to give back in the form of beneficence, economic stimulation (aka, work) and humanitarian expansion through the arts, music, philosophy, etc. We’ve officially turned a corner from the time when my great-great grandparents worked so long and hard from childhood to adulthood that they missed some of the fun that’s necessary in life, to the point that now our children and grandchildren think work will magically get done by someone else. Or worse, they don’t think of work at all.

We have an opportunity here, folks. We ARE society. We can continue to moan about today’s workforce (or lack thereof), or we can find a way to show these kids that showing up matters — that being on time and on task makes a difference in someone’s life. And most of all, we can show them that while they may groan now, the principles they’re learning are the building blocks to the future of our society. Get out there. Volunteer to talk in your high schools and church youth groups. Tell your stories. Show them what you’re made of. They don’t get it because they don’t know it. And far be it from any parent to tell a teenager anything!

Good luck! I’ll be rooting for you (with my glass of wine for patience)!