Kids Today

My best friend, let's name her Amy for the sake of anonymity, called me today, eager to share the details of her cruise to Nova Scotia. But instead of hearing about delicious food, dancing, and other fun cruise highlights, oh, boy did I get an earful.

Apparently the suite she stayed in was located across the hall from some party girls in their early 20s. Seems these young ladies had it in for poor Amy's mom and dad after one brief incident where they were politely shushed with a smile at 11:30 p.m. while making a drunken ruckus in the hallway.

The next morning after the shushing incident, my friend's family found that the room service card they'd hung on their door had been replaced with a new one, requesting an entirely different meal, two hours earlier than they'd wanted it delivered. Imagine the joy when the family was awoken to brisk knocks at 7 am, to find a morning meal of smoked salmon, tomato juice and a bowl of cereal waiting for them.

This prank was only the beginning. Carefree times on the high seas quickly turned into the vacation from hell, with the inconsiderate hallmates making a holy racket every night until 4 a.m., sabotaging their room service attempts, making rude comments in passing, laughing disrespectfully, and then turning into sniveling, fib-telling, sobbing drama queens when security was finally called.

This is just one of the many instances I've seen where "next generation" kids have proved themselves to be completely self-absorbed. I worked at a restaurant briefly during my transition from full-time copywriter to temp copywriter, to business owner. The owners of the restaurant were the parents of two of the nastiest, most obnoxious children I've ever met in my life. If God ever handed out Parenting Report Cards, he'd surely give these people get an F.

The teenage son was ADHD so I cut him some slack - sometimes he made me laugh. But many, many times he said things to me that are just not acceptable for a 17 year old kid to utter to a woman in her thirties (or to anyone for that matter). And yet I can't seem to remember the parents ever chastising him for this behavior.

The young hooligan had an evil sister; I honestly cannot say one nice thing about this child. She was 10 times more rude than her brother on a day he forgot to take his ADHD medication (which I believe was actually marijuana based on the phone calls I'd overheard).

She'd sashay into the kitchen where the food was being prepared, and dip her grubby little finger into the sautee pans, lick, dip, laugh and insult the cook (who was inevitably hollering at her to get out). Then she'd stuff a handful of "forbidden" olives from the salad bar into her mouth, spew something foul at whoever was working, toss her haughty little head and parade off again.

To sum up these two tales: my friend's family is not particularly prudish, and neither am I. None of us are easily insulted, we've all done our fair share of partying, and generally we're just not an uptight bunch. So when I point out obnoxious teens and young adults as a source of anguish, I assure you they were truly rude, truly disrespectful and exhibiting completely inappropriate behavior.

Now I look around, and I see these young kids at their summer jobs. And they're on their cell phones, chatting it up with some dude with stupid looking baggy pants on, and totally ignoring me as I stand there with my money out, waiting to be treated with respectful courtesy as a customer should, but getting no acknowledgement whatsoever. Or they're plopping a crooked blop of ice cream on my girlfriend's kid's ice cream cone and it's dripping down the cone and they're not handing out a napkin, or looking at any of us, or even giving a hoot what's happening.

And this makes me wonder what went wrong. This "new age" discipline, or shall I say lack of, that parents are using to raise their kids: is it working? Doesn't seem to be. Because if it were my kid who just spoke to YOU that way, you can be sure he'd get a good crack in the mouth and never do it again.

If it were my kid who didn't care about school or doing something good for the community, or performing well at his job or respecting and learning from his elders, there would be more than a few groundings and privilege withholdings. And it's probably a good thing I don't have children, because if I did they'd be humble and wouldn't stand a chance against today's generation of self-entitled brats.

Generally-- and I will admit there are exceptions to the rule-- I'm not seeing much in the way of a value system being instilled into these youngsters. I'm seeing cell phones, video games and electronic gadgets for kids who should be reading books, creating artwork, building things with their hands, caring for pets and learning that being mature means taking responsibility for one's own actions. I'm seeing entire days into nights spent internet surfing and chatting on instant messenger instead of enjoying summer fun and live social interaction.

I'm seeing kids getting involved in sexual relationships long before they're emotionally ready, and young girls who choose Paris Hilton as their role model... Paris Hilton, the queen of selfishness and lack of respect for authority.

I'm seeing children who talk back to their parents, throw fits and get their way. And it makes me angry, to watch the baby chicks ruling the roost.

I remember my first job as an ice cream counter girl at age 16, and I remember caring about it. It made me happy to feed sweet frozen treats to mall shoppers. I wanted to master the cash register and get the portion sizes correct and swirl the whipped cream just so. I told people to have a nice day and meant it. And I was only sixteen.

Yes, you made a baby, and that's a small miracle. But now you're making an adult, and you've got a lifetime of hard work to do. So let's see some positive progress!

If you're the parent of a kid who "just doesn't care," and doesn't obey you or show you respect... does it bother you?

Then why don't you do something about it?

But until you figure out what that "something" is, please keep your unruly child far away from me!

Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

By: D Marie Giolitto