Millennial Says It’s ‘Embarrassing’ How Bad Their Generation Is At Parenting — ‘We Need To Step It Up’
"We face enormous challenges in the coming decades and we need to raise our children to meet them."
Prostock-studio | Shutterstock If you've been paying attention to recent discourse from teachers, you've likely heard countless stories about children who don't know how to read, have meltdowns in class, and show zero respect for their educators. Not to mention, there are parents who are unwilling to discipline their bad behavior and instead blame anyone else.
One millennial however, insisted their generation of parents are precisely to blame, arguing that they need to "step it up" in the parenting department.
The millennial said it’s ‘embarrassing’ how bad their generation is at parenting.
They began their post by comparing the r/teachers subReddit to "a super-slow-motion car wreck that I can't turn away from because it's just littered with constant posts from teachers who are at their wit's end because their students are getting worse and worse."
They claimed that millennial parents are the source of the issue.
"The really bad news is that teachers pretty widely seem to agree that awful parenting is at the root of this doom spiral that we're currently in," they wrote.
The millennial described the many flaws they see within this generation of parents.
"Parents who hand their kid an iPad at age 5 without restrictions," they described the so-called problem millennials. "Parents who view any sort of scolding to their kid as akin to corporal punishment, parents who think teachers are babysitters."
"Parents who allow their kids to think that the kid is never responsible for their own actions," they continued, "and that the real skill in life is never accepting responsibility for your actions."
They added that this generation of parents often utilizes an inaccurate version of gentle parenting, which includes a lack of boundaries and never saying no. They are focused more on being their child's friend than their parents and opt out of disciplining their children.
"It's embarrassing that our generation seems to suck so much at parenting," they admitted. "I know we've had a lot of challenges to deal with since we entered adulthood and life has been hard. But ... the other generations also faced problems too. Bemoaning outside events as a reason for our awful parenting is ridiculous."
They went on to describe the types of children millennial parents are raising.
"Kids who think it's OK to punch and kick and scream to get their way, kids who don't respect authority," they detailed.
DimaBerlin | Shutterstock
"Kids who don't see a scholastic future because they're relying on 'the trades' to save them because they think the trades don't require massive sets of knowledge or the ability to study and learn," they continued.
Children must learn responsibility and it's up to their parents to teach them.
Ultimately, it's not up to teachers to teach children this lesson. As the Redditor put it, "Teachers are gardeners who plant seeds and provide the right soil for growth, but parents are the sunlight and water."
"We need to collectively choose to be better parents by making sure our kids are learning and studying at home, keeping our kids engaged and curious, teaching them responsibility," the millennial insisted. "Teaching them that these things should be the bare minimum."
Parents, even millennials, must enforce consequences so that their children learn right from wrong. Without them, they will go through life acting with no regard to how their negative actions affect other people — and their own future.
"We need to step it up here," the Redditor concluded. "For our teachers, for our kids, and for the future. We face enormous challenges in the coming decades and we need to raise our children to meet them."
Sahlah Syeda is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.