POLL: Do Children Have Too Much Freedom These Days?

[doublehelix]

A new study of parenting advice finds that since the late 1920s, the approach to child-rearing has changed dramatically. Back then, advice columns tended to promote obedience, with children listening to parents regarding diet, appearance and other personal matters. Nowadays the advice recommends allowing children to express themselves freely, even if that means defying and arguing with parents.

http://www.livescience.com/culture/0908 ... onomy.html

[ranel]

indeed. i was already thinking on what kind of behaviors would be the future generations has. getting worse

[dillondondemas]

it all depends. no two sets of parents are the same. although i have to agree that the trend is shifting towards very limited parenting nowadays. kids with no rules in their home grow up to think that there are no rules out in the real world and they end up being impulsive, selfish, stupid adults. i beleive that if this trend doesn't stop, in 20 years half the population will be incarcerated and there will be strip clubs and liquor stores next to daycares.

[chiqui13]

I think that it would depend on how you see it. For those parents/adults who use their previous childhood as the measuring stick, then they'd probably say that children have too much freedom nowadays. But for those who understand that times have changed, and so thus culture, maybe they'll say no.

For me, I still haven't made up my mind regarding this matter.

[HHKev84]

I think children have absentee parents in this day than before...but I believe schools are becoming like fortresses.

For example, in my local school district (which I graduated from 7 years ago) there's talk about making kids wera coded name tags to school. "Big Brother is watching you", perhaps?

But I think parents are afraid of unruly kids and aren't taking the proper steps to set up boundaires at an early age. The child grows up with limitless freedom from permissive parents and has a huge shock from the schools who impose draconian rules and expects the children to obey. It's incongruent with what they are learning at home.

Kids don't have manners...but neither did I when I was a kid. I had poor manners during my teen years like everyone not associated with the Brady Bunch did. It's part of growing up, to rebel against something...that's how you form healthy expectations about the world. Kids who either have completely absent parents or permissive or neglectful parents won't have that conflict and therefore may become self-centered, whiny adults who think the world owes them a favor.

Kids today just have "sexting", a form of sexual text messaging I didn't have 7 years ago. And I don't feel old at 25...the biggest thing when I was a kid was having a cell phone. QWERTY phones didn't exist in the mainstream until I got to
Undergrad school.

I think before we ask ourselves if kids have too much freedom, we should ask how the world has changed and what "freedom" is defined as today as opposed to ten, five or even one year ago. Trully, a child only has as much freedom as parents, teachers, police, and society in general (functioning as an authority) will give, as they are the gatekeepers to technology and the reponsible use thereof.

Example: a child wants to have a phone of his/her own. The parents say "NO!"...the schools say "I WILL CONFISCATE IT"...but society says: get a prepaid phone for $45 a month with limitless boundaries. You need to have money (which can be acquired through legal or illegal methods, depending on the age of the child and whether he/she has a job or just steals from parents) and you've got yourself a private line to text your friends day and night...see how easy it is?

Parents need to be involved and work with children from an early age and instill expectations.

[Bon]

maybe you have to ask if the inventors and product companies etc. have too much freedom than they should have.

I think freedom and discipline need to go together. But who show the way of such and such freedoms and such and such disciplines? Freedom seems to be blind and so is discipline. So blind leads blind.