It is 12:47 in the morning, I’m at the computer and have the desk top stereo cranked..listening to oldies..93.3 KIOA…the station I listened to before the station and I were oldies…
I worked 3 hours tonight…Alayna called in sick so 3 of us split up the time. Working OT when you don’t have to work an entire shift is painless for me.
As I speak in generalities here, my intent is not to irritate..I’m merely presenting an observation….and my observations may be a bit skewed which I won’t get into as anyone who has read me before should be able to understand why I qualify my thoughts.
The generation which belongs to my children, who have chosen to live life responsibly, really impresses me…in fact, I mentioned to one of them tonight that I wish I had been as squared away when I was that age. They seem to know what they want and are going for it…Jenny asked me the other day if I had kids because I wanted them or because it was what I was supposed to do…zing…holy, Mother..they have us figured out. Of course, I don’t speak for every 50-60 year old woman here but..ladies out there..isn’t it true…we carried around baby dolls and played house and barbies which taught us that we would get married and have children and probably get a job to help make money after the kids started school…perhaps we would be a teacher or a nurse…just like mom. Some of us made our goal and some of us didn’t. Ain’t no mountain high, ain’t no valley low, ain’t no river wide that could keep me from you… Kids now have impressive career goals..that isn’t to say that there aren’t kids of this generation who have adhered to the values that we grew up with and are living their lives just the same…I remember how important it was for me to get out there in the job market with only a year of bible college under my belt, yet the most important thing was to raise my children and be there for their boo boos and their support. I see so many girls today who are after a career..hold off on the kids until they get the base firmed up and feel they are ready to take on the incredible responsibility of children….and then…..
Now that my kids have flown the coop, I’m so confused. How did I do it all…especially being in this sandwich generation…is it any wonder the percentage of this generations that must rely on anti-depressants or one of the awful habits like drinking, smoking and/or overeating to get them out of bed and thru the day. I never had my time…It never ocurred to me that these expectation I was living up to were of my own creating…I was my own worst enemy.
I do find fault with this constant structured life that children have now…but what are these kids going to grow into…Is this structured play time, constant movement spending every night at the ball field, music lessons, dance…is this healthy..will these kids grow up with an imagination … will they know what to do with themselves without some type of structure…will they be creative or just programmed. Every generation has their way…I raised my kids different than I was raised and I’m sure they will raise their children different than they were raised and so on. Perhaps if a child knows that he/she is loved, truly loved and wanted, everything will be okay…. same with us parents of adults…we need to know that we are truly loved and wanted… I hope each generation returns the favor.
Until next time….
Ninasusan 
I have some stong opinions on child raising and structure and you made me think about my own choices. But if I gave you all my opinions, It would be a blog on your blog. lol Anyway, I don’t envy the kids coming up today. I do think we were better off in some ways back in the day when morals and values were valued. We do have more choices today. I think you’re right, we just keep evolving, each generation sees what the last one did wrong and tries to correct that. maybe they go too far and the next one goes back the other way. I dk, I think a lot of our problems stem from the way this country is run by big business…there are things we could do as a country to make life less stressful on everyone and that could change a lot..
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I think my parents were good parents but people in our class just didn’t plan ahead like people do today. It was expected that I would marry and have kids and maybe get a secretary job somewhere down the line. I wanted to get married and have kids and that was my plan. I wasn’t prepared for health and mental health issues, which for me weren’t because of being married and having kids and not having a greater plan but because of genetics. We have mental health issues in my family like some families have poor eyes or blood pressure issues.If I could do it all over again. I would have tried to get some sort of schooling early on and I would have worked part time throughout my life. Now I’m 46 and have no particular skills.I don’t envy young women today. I think they have a rough road. Go to school to get the bachelors degree. Work a few years and go back for their masters. Then they have to work a few more years to get settled in enough so that they can start having kids. We’re talking about 30 before they can start having kids. At that point, god forbid, you have fertility problems. I think they see these celebs having babies at 40 plus and think it won’t be a problem. What they don’t know is most of those women are doing some sort of fertility stuff and have the money to afford it.I think it is hard for women no matter what path they choose. If you work, you are just overloaded with trying to do it all. If you stay home, you have more time but way less money. And no matter what your choice it seems that people are always critical about some part of it.
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“It never ocurred to me that these expectation I was living up to were of my own creating…I was my own worst enemy”…. Amen to that. I wonder about the kids now too. You hear horror stories every day about how something violent goes on and everyone stands there or walks away and it occurs to only a very few to jump in and help or do anything that might be considered “moral” because that’s not the prevailing train of thought amongst. I think those who grow up with the unconditional love and some sort of structure that involves some form of discipline – ie consequences for incorrect choices – maybe they have a better shot. I don’t know. I feel like every day I’m figuring “it” and me out more and more. Someday I’ll get the me time – I long for…. until then….
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I believe that if kids know that they are loved they will most definetly return the favor! And when I say loved I don’t mean givin them everything they want….bailing them out of jail time after time…making excuses for the mistakes they make….I love 93.3!
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