Some people say “the future is coming,” but the future is already here. Almost everything in society is new and improved including technology, education, government, living, industry, and communication. With changes to every day human life comes with changes to human behavior. The primary purpose of the improvements is to make living easier and better. In doing this, people have become ungrateful and inconsiderate of the work that has been done in the past and the present. One primary drawback of current society is the disrespect among relationships between children, adolescents, and adults.
The way people raise their children has much to do with how they were raised and the area that they live. Though people are raised with many diverse values, one common value is respect. Of course this is in the past. Many people have strayed away from the tradition in the way they were raised. It is understood that not all tradition should be up held when time changes, but the foundation of tradition should be maintained. Parents are more disengaged and uninfluential on the lives of their children resulting in less moral stability. Or one of the parents are too engaged in their children’s life, trying to be their child’s best friend and smothering them.
In today’s age, it is not uncommon for a child or teen/ young adult to be contemptuous towards an elder. Disrespect was deeply feared in the past because there would be severe consequences in result of the flippant behavior towards adults. The behavior of children today is more than just talking back. Toddlers and even small children yell orders at their parents or hit them if their desires aren’t met. Even in these circumstances, there are no parental instruction that this is not to be done again. Teenagers rebel by putting themselves in harmful situations, doing drugs, and running away. Teachers have to deal with protestant, arrogant, and rude students because children no longer have any concern for the respect of elders.
One question to ask is, “where is this path taking us?” If the negative behaviors of today’s youth has escalated so much already, the problem is going to keep growing if not addressed. An issue left unsolved does not dissipate. Adults have been personally victimized with the heinous words and physical abuse of children and adolescents. Respect has not been properly taught or enforced in a considerable amount of today’s youth and it is consequently shaping today’s society in detrimental ways.
This isn’t saying that children are these evil, disrespectful, adult-haters. Children learn a great amount from their parents. What a parent consistently does, their child will most likely to do. One of those things that children learn is disrespect. Parents themselves often use harsh and demeaning terms to talk to their children. Harsh tones, negative terms, and deconstructing criticism deeply influences how children feel towards their parents and other adults. It also affects how children associate and deal with anger. While the youth of today has a real problem with respect, so does the parental generation. If a parent wants respect, they should also respect their children.
Overall disrespect is a growing problem in society. The primary concern is how children and adolescents treat their elders and it can very well be fixed by parents observing their own behaviors and the values they enroot in their children.
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