Basically you are right on some points and wrong on others. One is culture
changes with time. At the same time you have seen the feminization of men,
you have seen the masculinization of women. A recent survey found more
young women were ready to go to fight the war on terror if we got hit with
another 9/11 than the young men in the same survey.
The feminist groups and people who propped them up in the 70's and 80's have
also had an effect. Men's behavior is considered "not normal" and then if a
teacher accuses your son of having ADHD or ADD, and you are stuck on
welfare, they then have your social worker force your son onto drugs to calm
him down. Some of these same drugs have driven the young men in their
teenage years to become homicidal and shoot up classrooms.
I had a young friend about 8 years ago who was working with abandoned
children at camps until he noticed the camps were little more than a giant
kiddy lab rat center to test new psychopharmacological drugs out on kids,
and much of this was during the Clinton years, but we should have suspected
as much considering the Clintons were heavily invested in the Healthcare
Industry and still are. Anyway, my young friend quit working at the camps,
being a divorced Dad and not liking what they were doing turning these kids
minds into mush and turning them into drug addicts.
My brother and I could have both been considered ADD or ADHD, but with a
Father at home to keep us in line and a Mother who checked with a teachers
to make sure we were behaving, the worse problem I had as a young boy was
getting the report on every Report Card, "George is doing well on his grades
and is a good student, but he talks too much!" That was the extent to what
they today would label ADD or ADHD got out of control. I knew not to push
my teachers or disobey them intentionally, because I knew I'd have to face
both Mom and Dad back home.
Many of today's young men grow up with absent Father's or Father' who
themselves have remained juvenile and are not at all invested in their
children's lives. My Mother made sure my homework was the first thing done
when I got home from school, then my chores in the house, and then I had
"free time" or "play time" but not before. Before my Dad's job took him to
2nd shift, my Father would read one Chapter of the Bible, discuss it's moral
applications to every day life, and end with a short family prayer in which
everyone participated before I went to bed. Even when Dad moved to 2nd
shift, Mom kept up with this habit, and Dad was involved on Saturdays or
Holidays and Vacations. The family always shared at least one meal a day
together, and while we worked our chores, our Mother would quiz us about
what we thought about life, and how school was going, and would listen to
any problems we had, disguising chore time as a time to see what was
happening in her children's lives without it looking like an interrogation.
Parenting is a full time job, and it takes just a minimal amount of
investment. My Mother did return to work once I became a teenager, but
still manage to invest time with us when she was home. She was also our
friend and counselor. Dad was the bread winner, law enforcement for the
family, and on vacations and weekends he spent time with his sons teaching
them to fish, or spending the weekend cutting down trees, and hauling the
cut up lumber back home for firewood. In the summer we were busy with
Garden planting. The only thing Dad never caught onto was Video Games,
which we didn't have until I was 15, and those were only played after the
home and chores were complete, and usually only in the Winter time when you
were snowed in. Otherwise in the Spring and Summer we were out playing
softball or basketball. My parents had many a fun softball games just with
the family by itself, sometimes with neighborhood kids or relatives invited
for an occasional game to mix up the teams.
We were very active with Church youth programs and Church camp in the summer
for at least a week or two.
Now a days, families are more fractured than ever. Young men need adult
mentors in their teen years to help them grow, so it is no wonder when they
are abandoned with or without a Father at home, that they don't turn to the
Boob Tube to copy what is hip, and then end up looking ugly, dressing funny,
and act as something less than a man.
Basically, if you don't spend time helping your son by being his mentor and
giving him some guidance on what it is to be a man, and educating him about
the opposite sex and what will be required of them when they hook up with
the opposite sex to become Fathers, then it is no wonder today's young men
are lost. Then you get Liberal Dad's who do no mentoring, and talk about
letting their son's be "free" and leave them to raise themselves, or other
pathetic Father's who encourage them in foolishness and never give any
constructive criticism to help them improve themselves, and abandon their
duty as Parents, Fathers, Mentors.
Now about teaching your son to belch, fart, etc. Young boys don't need to
be trained in what comes naturally during their adolescent years. You don't
need to encourage them to be anything less than gentlemen when ladies are
around, or you may find they bring home a young woman who is not a lady and
who can behave just a vile as them, and then they end up raising kids who
become part of the grunge or hippy movements, and then neither they nor
their children have good hygiene nor good manners, and then you end up with
future generations of trailer trash.
If you are too late to go back and make sure that your sons respects you
before he gets to his teenage years, and you have a young fool and jackass
on your hands, and you now realize your mistake, probably the best thing you
could do for you son is get him to enlist in the Military so he can at least
be mentored in a community of young men who have to conduct themselves
professionally, and he can then finish growing up a bit. I never joined the
Military, but my Father was a drill Sergeant in both the Army and Army
Reserves. My drill Sergeant Dad did not tolerate me behaving as anything
less than a young gentlemen when I was in his presence, and they paid off
later in life when I left home.
If you want to do more than criticize young men and resort to the adolescent
mindset of calling them "pussies", then may I suggest you grow up yourself,
and get involved with you own son's lives, and if you don't have sons, then
get involved in Church or Community programs where you can spend a few hours
a week mentoring young men from broken homes, and help make a difference in
their lives, by being the Father figure they lack.
Such young men who lack Father's who are mentors and friends could use your
help more than they could use your criticism. As far as the 20 somethings
you can't help directly, take the time to befriend one when he is at the end
of his foolishness and needs help, and become a friend or big brother or
Father figure who can give him some practical and good advice.
Concentrate on having some constructive rather than destructive criticisms
in your future postings and life.
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be
secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift
of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just,
that His justice cannot sleep forever." - Thomas Jefferson
Stupendous Man
http://www.myspace.com/stupendousfriends
