Written by Danica Hobbs-Reed
Okay! Go Ahead! Ask my mother. Unequivocally the answer will be Yes. I was a very good teenager, in regards to attitude that is. I did not make my mother’s life a living hell as a teenager. I sat in my room mostly, while listening to my Jodeci, Boyz II Men and Heavy D cd’s. When I would break up a with a boyfriend, so what if I ran everyone crazy with her Peobo Bryson records over and over again until my brother begged on his life for me to stop. “Can You Stop The Rain” is a wonderful break-up song!
By no means am I stating I was a perfect teenager. Situations like trying to sneak out and do things that my mother did not know about have occurred occasionally! For Instance, I told her that a boyfriend of mine lived across town, when in actuality, he lived right around the corner! When she would send me on errands to the grocery store, I would stop by his house. When I returned home she would inquire what took me so long, I would reply, “The store was soooo crowded.” Sometimes I would also tell my mother that I would be at the local library studying with my friend Nikki. When in reality we were really on the Youngstown State University college campus trying to peek at the star quarterback Ray Isaac! Did I skip my last week of high school entirely because I knew I was graduating anyway? Of course!
I am stating all of this to point out that my two teenagers are driving me crazy. Their horrific attitude’s alone is just grueling. So, therefore, I can not even fathom placing the “sneaking around” aspect of being a teenager into the whole scenario. This generation of teenagers are so distorted when it comes to their outlook and approach to life. Their attitude and demeanor shows a shallowness of major disproportion. The "millennial generation" need for extreme “entitlement” (thinking that the world owes them something) is truly complex . It is a very difficult generation and culture to govern at times.
My generation was deemed “Generation X”. The media derived our name from the letter X because they felt we were a lost generation. We were thought to have no identity. It was stated that we were trying to "find ourselves". Personally, I was never lost and I do not believe that this is the case for our “millennial generation” either. I believe this generation knows exactly who they are and what they want out of life. The problem is that they are not truly aware of any other person in this life at times, except themselves. The lesson they need to learn is that the same people you step on going up, are the same people you will encounter when coming down. Their view on life must be bigger than themselves in order for them to truly succeed.
One of my grandmother’s most infamous sayings were, “You can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar.” Translation: You will get better results if you try to kill people with kindness than with coldness. Our generation of teenagers, on the other hand, have taken the stance that indifference is the way to success.
Why have they taken this position on life? We, as a society have instilled in our children that high accomplishment is everything and attitude is least on the moral code of standards. We have raised high achievers but low ethical mind-set individuals. You see, our society dictated to our children that you have to get A’s, but we never addressed the attitude behind the grades. It is the same principle as to why now all children receive trophy’s and awards for attending sporting activities, but their attitude’s disregard good sportsmanship. We have taught our children to win, but never taught them how to loose.
How as a society can we correct this problem of attitude with our teenagers? Well I haven’t the slightest idea! If you have some feel free to contact me!! I thought locking them in the basement until the end of puberty was a good start, but I heard it is against the law here in northeast Ohio. (Laugh!)
Grandma would also state at times, “A hard head makes a soft behind!” Translation: You may have to make every mistake in the book before you learn your lesson in life! In lieu of grandma’s advice, maybe just prayer and faith for this generation of teenagers on behalf of their view on life is the best advice for them altogether. I guess we will just have to wait and see how it all turns out!
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