The #1 Problem in America

This might seem a bit rantish but I believe this to be a great source of our problems.

Parent's are not taking interest in their kids interest.

It seems to that today most parents just try to keep their kids controlled and happy with busy school work and material possessions. Unless it's a classic American sport, most parents don't sit down and really help their children exploit their natural intuition and interest.

This has a serious effect leaving most children lost not knowing what they want to do besides make money and consume. Every time I asked someone in my graduation class, what are you going to do after here? Most said college and I asked what major, and why. They would respond with something like this, I want to be a physical therapist, they make around $xx,xxx a year! I would be so disgusted internally with those kind of responses. Just another sheep in the flock.

Just imagine if parents were to try their hardest to provide their children with resources of their interest and try to find other children with the same interest to interact with. I guarantee you would have some incredible experts in all fields driven by intuition and not by money.

For example. When I was young, even from a very very early age I hated school and any kind of blind authority. I would always talk to my parents and ask why? Why are we forced into this? This is idiotic and doesn't teach me anything. They would just say thats the way it is, ect ect... Both of my parents tried to get me to do the sports thing and I got bored of that quickly. The one thing I've always had an interest for was automobiles and anything related. When my dad would come home from work we would sit down and read all the latest auto magazines cover to cover and would take drives on the backroads, go to races, sometimes even work on them, but that was as far as it would go. If they would have kept feeding this obsession I know I would have been in some kind of professional racing or auto related profession. They never really pushed me when it came to my interest, they would always try to push me into what they thought was good.

I really can't imagine what a real change it would have in just one generation if parents dedicated more time, energy and money to their kids interest.

I would really like to hear some feedback. Especially to those who were fortunate enough to have parents like that.

Star and Flagged, Interested in this
Second Line.

reply to post by DarkStar86


Maybe parents are getting taken away from an actual opportunity to take interest in their kids. When you have two parents working, the fact of the matter is that the children are going to get dramatically less amount of care than a family with a full-time home-maker.

You make some great points, but I think that the #1 problem in America would be that too many people are relying on rules and not relying on thought, common sense, or judgment.

I think this video explains my point better.


[edit on 19-2-2009 by irongunner]
fixed video link


www.ted.com...

[edit on 19-2-2009 by irongunner]

It's not just that.
Many homes have both parents busting their humps trying to keep on top of the bills and the kids have the TV/Xbox/PS3 or a computer as the new babysitter and not enough families actually sit around the dinner table and have a traditional meal together anymore and go over the days events.

Really sad

[edit on 19-2-2009 by SLAYER69]

I'me very lucky in that my wife is a stay at home mom and always has been. We eat at the dinner table every night. We watch movies with the kids. We play board games, cards and even the wii with them. We go on trips and vacations with them. My kids are teenagers and they've not caused us one bit of trouble. They are really good kids and I credit my wife mostly, but myself also. We've encouraged them to take interest in things outside the home and we fully support them. I'm real proud of them. The best part of it is, as teens, they *like* spending time with the wife and I, just as much as we like spending time with them.

Aaron Russo, the producer of the documentary film "America - Freedom to Fascism" (a film about the criminal origin of the IRS and Federal Reserve) became friends with Nathan Rockefeller.

He states that Rockefeller confided in him that one of the goals of the global elite was to "destroy the family." By convincing women that their purpose in life was to be equal to men, then necessarily the age-old gender roles which were required for a healthy family unit would dissolve. Women would join the workforce, pay taxes, and then the children would have to be essentially raised by The State. They could no longer be mothers aside from the biological definition. When you can get kids into government-controlled schools at an early age (and away from their parents) then you can mold their thinking process, and teach them that their trust should be placed in world leaders (not parents) and that their loyalty was to the state. Then the state could produce good, obedient workers and soldiers who do not question authority, and who are also trained to react with disgust and hatred toward anyone who raises questions about the validity of state authority, its motives, goals, or means of achieving them.

It's been rather successful.



[edit on 19-2-2009 by username371]

I will reiterate what was stated before. Most of the wage gains American families have experienced in the last 25+ years has been from the mother entering the workforce. Now when both parents get done at work they still have to do housework/pay bills/etc. when getting home, the children have very little time.

Frankly, an Xbox or PS3 with games are the most cost effective babysitters around and parents simply do not have time to spend with their children. People are bombarded by advertisements and our natural competitive instinct takes over in keeping up with the Joneses. We are taught competition from a young age and consumption is no different. (a trap I have highly successfully avoided)

I don't know how our system got here, and I don't know where the breaking point is, but I do know it needs to advance in a different direction.

Thanks for the replies.

On the point when some of you said that parents are so busy these days working to pay off debt, ect ect. That is a valid point on why it's happening but not an excuse at all. What are they working off? Stuff, quick and easy gratification from buying stuff. If parents would only think and be creative with their budget for their children they wouldn't have to take those extra hours of work. Most people these days have the hard work weeks due to their over spending and the thought that they need the HDTV, the new car, ect ect.

About Aaron Russo's movie and the destruction of the family. I agree with those points %100. The whole women in the work force has been a huge detriment to our society in many ways. I think it is great if the mother can work from home and still maintain the household, but for her to be a traveling salesperson is just asking for disaster. Not to put down women, but they due sometimes make the work place too lax, gossipy and use their vanity for cruel intent. It may be a mans world, but it's nothing without a womans household.

Also, I think it's funny when a person thinks that if they are going to school or working that once they are done with those tasks they have done their moral deed for the day. The general population really needs to take time every week and keep informed locally, nationally, globally, and socially. People should be embarrassed that they don't have a clue about what going on in the world around them. There is absolutely no excuse for the ignorance.

Just wondering Darkstar, are you a working parent, or a parent period?

I have read this thread with interest and it saddens me to agree with the points raised. When I was a wee nipper, I was always asking 'why?' and I would never give up until I was satisfied that my question had been answered to the fullest extent. My family were very close and we did a lot of things, picnics, drives out in the country side, games etc etc. Both my parents worked as well, although one worked in the day, the other in the evening.

Myself and my partner have a one year old, and we both work. We are both in full-time employment in downtown Chicago. Now we are not huge money makers, but we earn a modest/average wage. We are constantly struggling to make ends meet. We had to put our child into daycare at 3 months old, as my partner had to get back in the workforce as her alotted time had been used up and she needed to be earning again, as we couldn't survive on just my income (we had just bought a small condo as well).

I could not get my head around putting a 3 month old baby, still 'wet behind the ears' into a daycare with people we didn't know. It's a vicious circle, as the daycare costs are more than my mortgage payments. So the irony is my partner goes back to work, to pay the increased costs of living, only for us to be struggling all the time. We have limited time together, as we have long days, we are up at 5 am and don't get back in the door till after 6.30pm. We put the little fella to bed at 8.30pm, so we get a lousy 2 hours a night with him if we are lucky.

I guess the point I am getting to is I can see how the family unit can disintergrate. You have few options but to work, to pay your way, and *maybe* keep your head above water.

I have to disagree slightly with the 'What are they working off? Stuff, quick and easy gratification from buying stuff' comment though. I incurred some ghastly credit card debt from the hospital after the birth of my son, and the reason? because the billing people would not work out a 'pay what you can each month' arrangement. They wanted $150 a month from us, and that was only one of the four different bills we were being sent. I decided to dump it all on my credit card because it was the only way out, at least then I only have one payment I have to make to one entity, rather than all the insurance companies that just confuse you with all sorts of needless paperwork.

Those of us living literally paycheck to paycheck sometimes have to bite the bullet. I wish I had money to spend on a new TV or a new car!

The good thing about it all though is that I ended up with a beautiful baby