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Normal Parents There is no doubt about the huge room for improvement parents can make in their homes. But is it possible to try too hard to be good parents and even grandparents for that matter? The latter half of the 20th Century saw an explosion of self-help tools and media reports on how to be a better parent. It started somewhere around the time Dr. Spock was doing his thing and it has ballooned out of control ever since. Boomers everywhere were shunning the strictness of their parents, the Builders, and looking for more "nicer" ways to raise their kids. Now I gotta say that no one likes to be treated rough by their parents. I think it was the Bible that chided us concerning chastisement. No, it is not pleasant, and the Builder generation didn't try very hard to take the edge off it either. Amazingly enough the Boomer generation turned out pretty good. Their mark on our society is printed with indelible ink. My concern in all of this is did we lose something trying to make things better for our kids? Our day has seen a marked increase in mental sickness in our kids that was unheard of in past generations. ADD, ADHD, Autism . . . there hasn't been enough time for some new genetic abnormalities to spread through the general population. Why has there been this dramatic rise of mental and social disorders? Is it something we're feeding our kids or some other environmental causation? Or is the problem more elemental? With the loss of family structure and job security, and the hurried lifestyles I believe our children have been put at a serious social and mental disadvantage. And parents know they're falling short in the area of good old fashioned family time and so they are trying furiously to make up the difference by buying kids things and giving them temporary "happy days." I think what kids of this day need are not more things or neat experiences, but what they need are good old fashioned parents. Our kids need parents who will slowdown long enough to "be with" their kids, and parents who will let their kids "be with" them. Kids need parents who are "normal" people. People who make mistakes, who are imperfect, but people who love God and do their best to live by His words. I know the job seems immense at times, but that's no excuse to throw in the towel. But lets not go overboard either. Everyone knows that perfectly "normal" kids cry, fight, and throw temper tantrums. Let's just be perfectly normal parents complete with our flaws, and let's love our kids back to health! Pastor Robert Morse |
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