Teenage Wasteland

Interesting title, I agree.  But it's also what's happening to the area in which I live and I find it very disturbing. I writing about this today because we as parents, or any parent for that matter, need to wake up!  Me included.

Quit enabling your children! It has become to the point many have become helpless in this world of work and society, and since have turned to nothing but parties and drugs, making their future ability to function in this world completely obsolete. They think it's just easier to smoke a little or take a few pills to make that dysfunctional feeling go away. It's so sad really. It seems to becoming an epidemic. Not just where I live, but all over the US.

I am seeing it with my own eyes and I don't know quite know how to handle it.  Yes, I may have my boys tightly gripped and overseen the best that I can do, but I also can't be everywhere either.  They are the ones who have to make the right choices and stand on their own two feet.  I provide them the guidance and wisdom of what entails of their future. It's they who have to focus and run with it. 

I have lived out here in the Estates 11 years now and it was and still is a beautiful place to live and I love it.  It's quiet, it's spacious, there are wild animals all about, but sadly, there is hardly a place for our youth to go to and enjoy some kid time. Whether it's playing basketball or just company in a nice surrounding at a park bench. Anything for them would be great.  But they are bored. There isn't much out here locally, actually nothing really.  Many cannot drive, so they turn to drinking and drugs instead, beginning their own track record.  An infested teenage wasteland of boredom and drugs.

For the past six months, I have been working very hard and have counseled many kids on their future.  I am doing my best to get them on the right track, get past some really tough teenage mistakes, and get into school and get a job.  I have found myself pretty good as to sitting them down and have them listen to me. As I in turn listen to them. I get them motivated and excited because they know there is a future out there for them, and I am here to get them where they need to be.  

But lately, some of those kids have not listened, and unfortunately one of my own didn't listen either.  It's a fact of life, I as a Mother, have to deal with now, but we will get through it one day at a time.  As far as the others go?  I don't want to give up, but it becomes meaningless when nothing seems to help and the parents allow them to continue with their actions.  So with that said, I am stepping away from those kids.  I cannot do it anymore. 

Setbacks occur most often when you are dealing with kids that just can't get out of this wasteland. AKA...drugs. They are high school drop outs, maybe working out of the house doing something for the parents, dealing drugs on the side, and the sad part is, they think they are on top of the world.  They've got nothing better to do because they have never been taught certain basics to life.  They are lost.

I ask all of you.  Have you ever sat your child down and showed them how to write a resume?  How and where to apply for a job?  How to enroll in colleges and follow thru on all the numerous steps you need to get there? The transcripts to orientations, to setting up what they want to do with their life?

Have you ever shown them how to write a check?  Fill out the register as money gets deposited into and out of their accounts?  And what are those little numbers at the bottom of the check?  Do they even have an account?  Or do you just keep providing that $20 here, $20 there, handing them that cell phone they did not work for, giving them that car they drive around in. They in return assume all will be figured out later. Yeah, later is when they finish up high school and look around and ask themselves, "Now what?"  All lost souls and so much time wasted.

Many of these kids have no clue and it is so sad really.  And I am not saying it's all the kids, but I do feel it is a very large number. The future of our society will be consumed with spoiled children turned grown adults. Still expecting everything to be handed to them hand and foot.

I don't have money, never really did and may never.  But you know what?  I learned all of what life entails and I have learned to do my best, passing it down to my boys.  Thankfully, the two older have jobs, go to school, own their own car, bought their own cell phones, and pay for car insurance and phone bill every month.  I taught them, I continue to show them that this is life, and it's not going to get easier. They must always stay ahead and focus on themselves to become someone.  It's up to them to be who they want to be and work to be a productive citizen in this world.  

I ask all of you parents who read this.  Never give up, always focus and teach your children that a whole future is ahead of them, even when setbacks occur. Always try to know where they are and who their friends are. Sit them down and just chat about their day. Ask what are they are doing to make life better?  Teach them the basics.  Yes, it can be a bit time consuming, I know.  But you brought them into this world, and when the day comes knowing when your child "gets it", it will make you very proud.

"There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues of human society are created, strengthened, and maintained."
-Winston Churchill