Letter to the editor: Coddle your kids and you'll make them miserable adults
Life is hard but simple. It is based on the logical reality of "survival of the fittest."
Every small-business owner, farmer, rancher and person who hunted in the wilderness knew that and taught their children that reality. You had to be strong, independent, work hard and excel at your craft or you would fail.
They taught their kids to start working at an early age to build their strength and skills to prepare them for adulthood.
People also understood the wisdom of Plato who 2,400 years ago said "To have a good society children must be exposed to good material and shielded from bad material." That is why all parents shielded their kids from violent and adult books, TV, and R-rated movies.
Back then kids watched "Father Knows Best," which taught kids our core traditional values. On top of that, parents used to understand the wisdom of Rousseau, who said "The surest way to make your child unhappy is to accustom him to get everything he wants."
That's why they taught kids that they had to work and earn their toys and goodies. Today all that wisdom has been trashed.
Today we have helicopter moms and dads spoiling their kids rotten. While a majority of teenagers had summer jobs in 1960, today less than 30 percent do.
Our 12-year-old kids are bombarded every day with violent and sexual filth on social media, movies and games that Baby Boomers could not imagine.
Kids today get participation trophies just for showing up, live in safe zones, and have therapy puppies.
That is not the real world, and we are preparing our kids for failure.
Randy Rossi
Grayslake