Remember Parenthood?

As much as you’d like to think that I’m talking about the Ron Howard movie that came out over twenty years ago, I’m not.

But maybe I am.

Ladies and gentlemen, what in tarnation has happened to the practice of parenthood in the last 15 years (by my reckoning) where responsibility has been shucked in favor of letting the Wii take over?

This isn’t dedicated to the Wii alone. Name your game system, your smart phone, your app, and any other electronic wonder born of in the last thirty years and designed to perpetuate our collective lethargy.

Did I suggest that electronics have replaced parents?

Don’t forget what appears to be a magnified attention on diagnosing kids with any and every ailment, learning disability, or other malady known to man at this particular time in history.  God forbid if a kid sits in class and looks out the window for a bit, only to be subsequently diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.  I speak of this from personal experience, people.

Granted, I skipped all 10 plus years of medical school, assorted certification, and internships, but I would suggest that a majority of kids diagnosed with things like ADD today and subsequently medicated don’t really need the prescribed treatment.

It would seem at the increased rate in which kids are being diagnosed with some bullshit ailment these days, short buses in the future will be designated for kids without a diagnosis.  Sure that seems absurd now, but wait until it happens and remember where you read it first.

Did I mention medication?

Of course I did.

Any conspiracy theorist worth his salt and a traipse through Area 51 could put those two puzzle pieces together.

I don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories, so I’m not going to walk down that path.

Well, gee.  Who can we blame here?

Should we blame the likes of Microsoft, Apple, or Sony for purveying electronic bliss?  Why not sue gun manufacturers for gun violence, or spoon producers for obesity?

Nope.

What about the teachers who refer kids for analysis?  What about the shrinks who misdiagnose or “Big Pharma”?

Nope.

I tend to blame parenting, or lack thereof.

There are generally some pretty screwed up kids out there that are the hapless victims of their parents inability to dispense the correct level of parenting.  It’s quite sad really to watch it day in and day out without the

Author’s note from the year 2020:  Well that’s weird.  I was reading this piece and that previous paragraph just dropped off.  I don’t remember verbatim what I put there to finish that thought, however it’s pretty safe at this point for the reader to fill in the blanks.  Okay, that’s enough.  Back to the original rant, already in progress.

I’ve never really discussed it before, but I believe parental imprinting has a whole lot more to do with the behavioral development of a child than what we actually understand at this point.

Did I mention the movie Parenthood earlier?

Of course I did.

Take a look at one of my favorite lines from that movie.