‘Basic’ Skills Are Lacking in Young Generation
February 15, 2012, Submitted by: Lauren (Mrs. MSB) Tweet
Okay, I might as well tell you all right now…I need to vent. So here it is, straight from yesterday’s grocery store adventure. Ken and I decided to do our weekly grocery store run and we were both gathering items to help speed the process. At one point, I asked Ken to go and get a turkey breast cutlet for a soup I am going to make. I continued to look for other items.
When we were checked out and walking back to the truck, Ken told me about what he saw when he was at the meat counter looking for the turkey cutlet. He said there were several teenagers standing along side the meat counter. “You could tell one of them was sick” he said. And she was sneezing right over the meat counter, not once, but several times. And SURPRISE, SURPRISE, she wasn’t covering her nose or mouth! Ken said he just shook his head and walked away…no turkey cutlet after that! I looked at Ken and asked, “And why aren’t these kids covering their mouths when they sneeze?” At the same time, we both answered, “Because their parents aren’t teaching them to do it.”
About a week ago, in my post regarding Recession Creates Preppers, I touched upon the fact that very few, if any, of our younger generation would be able to bake from scratch. Why not? Because they are not taught by their parents. What happened with this generation? As one reader pointed out, the trades need to be taught. Not only the trades, but the staples of running a household too, cooking, sewing etc. How many young people have you seen at a dinner table with absolutely no table manners? There they are with both elbows on the table and chewing with their mouths open. It’s disgusting, but it is also VERY scary.
It’s very scary to me in a survival preparedness sense. First of all, the way these kids cough everywhere and anywhere without covering their mouths, we would very easily be in a lot of trouble with a new flu or pandemic situation. There seems to be no preventative health precautions taught to this generation.
Why aren’t manners being taught anymore? This too would help prevent a virus spread because I’ve seen plenty of these kids cough at the dinner table without covering their mouths. But they seem to have no concept of what they are doing wrong. Maybe it’s because they are too busy texting? No, they are not being taught by their parents. What happened?
It worries me because if and when the SHTF, there are so many that will just be so clueless. No common sense and no skills.
I guess what I’m trying to say is I just don’t know why the ‘basics’ aren’t being taught anymore. Do you have a grandchild that you can take under your wing?
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This is why it was so rewarding to see that Nat. Geo. program last night in which these really good kids were learning all sorts of valauable survival methods, and you could tell what good children they were. To tell you the truth I worry more about generation Y than do I the kids from 10 to teenager. Kids under 10 still have a good chance because they have not yet been “CONDITIONED”. Teenagers and pre-teenagers are natural born rebels and are more likely to take on common sense in reference to survival when they see something worrisome in the world. Generation Y is so screwed and have been totally conformed to the beginning of the I-phones, blackberry, etc., the truly modernisation of again what I call the Jetsons lazy do nothing let your muscles go to flab.
Look at the different generations:
Generation X, people in their 30′s and 40′s still remember pay telephones, no computers, TV without cable, the cold war, etc. In other words going without everything that has become so expected.
Baby Boomers, people in their late 40′s to mid 60′s. This is probably the most concentrated of preppers. They are mature enough to see what is happening and have a lifetime of experiences that warrant getting ready.
Silent Generation. People in their mid 60′s to late 70′s. Retirees that are actually more interested in enjoying their golden years that adapting to surviving their last years in anything other than luxary.
The greatest generation. People in their late 70′s to early 90′s. People here are unlikely to care much about anything other than not suffering from their last years on Earth. They would likely prepare by storing up medical needs. Some of them have gone through the Great Depression and are willing to give information and insight to preparing and being ready to those younger than them.
Generation Y, 20′s something has tasted the forbidden sweet taste of technology and the ease and laziness of having everything done for you and no way can even think of giving it up. There are exceptions, but not many. Generation Y also usually have no personalities, there are total bores. I have seen this everyday and when you see someone laughing and having a good time it is some kid or someone 30 or over. I don’t know what it is, but generation Y’ers seem hopeless when it comes to everything, they remind me of barnacles that are just there stuck on something or some whale. Even a better description is used chewing gum stuck on your shoes.
I still see hope for kids, IF their parents have any sense to them, they are still yet to be molded. If their parents are generation Y’ers, you just hope that the kids latch on to someone that has sense to them. Teenagers again are rebellous and still have yet to become the total conformists that Gen. Y has become to gadgets. It is so sad to see this 20′s something so oblivious to everything, it is a miracle they can function now, a practical impossibility when SHTF.
I know it is rather cruel to use the barnacle or used chewing gum analogy to describe Generation Y’ers, but I cannot see to much substance to them when I have to deal with them. There are pleasant exceptions, but not many. Kids unconditioned and not yet set in their ways still have hope, thankfully.
I am 30, (not sure if I am part of your ‘young’ people category) but I never learned any basic trades either. I know it’s because 1) both my parents worked 60 hour weeks and 2) my mom didn’t really learn from her mom either. My maternal grandparents were both immigrants who came here as children escaping the Nazis. So it probably goes to say that they didn’t have much of a childhood to learn many of these skills as well. My mom always said my grandmother was a terrible cook and the last person she would even want to learn from.
Anyway, my point is that it’s been a long time coming. I don’t think we can just blame this current generations’ parenting skills, because they may not have the skills themselves. Although, I must say I was taught to cover my mouth!
I don’t mean to start a debate here, but I think it’s beyond time for schools to step up and teach what parents clearly no longer are qualified to teach. I had 1 home ec class in all of high school and we made a stuffed animal. Most of my friends can not even balance their checkbooks or create their household budget without some computer program to do it for them.
If we lose our modern technology for whatever reason, I think we are in more trouble than we can begin to imagine.
When in the Air Force (for 20 yrs) about 1/3 of the people who were enlisting were unskilled, undereducated and didn’t have a clue about how to be responsible for their own actions. It was a mirror image of what was going on in our society. Scary.
Soon they were either toeing the line or they were back out on “civy street”.
Those that stayed became committed to their success by learning and turned out to be valuable airmen. They began to understand what it was to be held accountable for their own actions. When discipline was applied for infractions, they paid the price and began again to do better next time.
When I retired, I had some young medical NCOs working for me I dare say that I would put my life and the lives of my family in their hands because they knew their job and were proficient in their skills.
These young people responded to discipline. It appears they needed that strict discipline. They liked the rules that all “officer and enlisted” had to adhere to or face punishment via the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice).
I am proud of the young men and women I served with and trained. They eagerly joined us old troops and became part of the solution – not part of the problem.
Bottom line: Young people need discipline. They need to know the boundaries of control. They want to be trusted. They want to be held accountable. They strive to be “part of the society” we trust.
But it all starts in the home. The parents must teach these children.
Otherwise when SHTF these kids will starve in the millions.
This last summer I worked inside Rocky Mountain National Park as a Trail Guide taking folks out on horseback rides. I could fill plenty of space telling you all the stories of the kids on my rides who asked questions like “when do you feed the bears/elk/coyotes” because they’ve never been outside of a concrete jungle. I could deal with that, but it was when my fellow guides and I decided to have a camp fire one night that I saw just how bad it has gotten.
The girls go into town to get drinks/food because well, that’s what they do. When they get back, they’ve returned with a store fire log because “how else are you going to start a fire out here?”
Really?
After I picked my jaw up, our cook and I had everyone spend 5 minutes picking up branches while he knocked over a dead tree and I scooped up the pine needles and pine cones around the fire pit. The look of bewilderment from a simple spark igniting all those dry pine needles from them was terrible.
Discipline, Pride, there are a whole lot of things OUR children need to learn but ultimately it has to begin with the parents.
@ Tonto: EXACTLY! This is the sort of stuff I’m talking about. They really are clueless and it is the fault of the parents. But it seems there is so much of it lately. I wonder why parents stopped teaching…
I lived without a cell phone and I still do. These kids could never survive without their cell phones. What else is there to do in life?
Thanks for the comment and stay well, Lauren
I live just south of RMNP in Golden and I’ve been asked, “At what altitude do deer become elk?”.
Sad.
@pappyjack, Isn’t it at 8,000 feet?
lol… yes, it’s sad alright.
Just before I retired I worked for 3.5 years at the Lake Washington School District, Redmond, Washington. Frequently delivering and moving stuff. In
the process we’d come into contact with children from 1st thru 12th grades.
From Jr. High up many of those children showed little or no respect for those of us who worked for a living. It was the result of living in a middle class family where everything was provided, cell phone, lap top, kindel, the most modern styles, new autos as soon as they got their license, ect. You know the story.
These people have no idea what it is like to “WORK” for their needs. I often laughed thinking “They don’t have a clue of what is awaiting them – even if they delay the inevitable after college.” They will be back at Dad/Mom’s door step if anything goes wrong. What i found most enjoyable is that those parents didn’t have a clue of what to do if SHTF. All being utterly useless.
I hope the young people are fast learners – their very lives will depend upon it.
@ 1984: ABSOLUTELY correct! They don’t have any idea what it’s like to WORK for their needs, but I blame the parents who provide them with everything they need to become mush brains, the cell phone, lap top, etc. And you are right, so many of them will be back at their parents house because they can’t afford to live on their own.
Ken and I remember, and still practice this ancient means of communication, called TALKING to each other. Talking face to face, a.k.a. socializing!
Stay well, Lauren
Just imagine, these kids and their parents running out of food, heat, electricity, and gasoline. What will they do?
Try to sell you something useless (like a Big Screen t.v.) for any kind of food. You’ll see them at any place there is a “Barter Town” or “Swap Meet”.
They will look starved, wearing their high priced duds and $200 tennis shoes.
In the end these are the people who will join gangs and roam the cities looking for someone who has food, fuel and ammunition. These are the people who will attack you and you’ll have to defend yourself. Never let them get within 25 feet of you and be prepared to take them out – big time.
It will be you and your family against numerous people at different times – since multiple attempts will be made by the same group or different groups to seize your food and supplies. So get out of the cities. Even the suburbs aren’t really safe. Move out into the country. Get set as soon as you see the Europeans start running on their banks. The stock Market crashes or the U.S. Dollar decline to where it is no longer viable.
If you planned correctly, you and your family will make it to the next growing season. Grow next years food in your garden, obtain meat via farming chickens, pigs beef, sheep or goats. Hunt turkeys, pheasant, grouse, deer, elk. Fish year round. Dry or smoke the meat for next year.
Best have a very good water supply at hand.
Prep and pray that what I’ve just written does not come upon us.
@ 1984: I do prep all the time and pray as well. But I feel we are driven for a reason…
Stay well, Lauren
My two cents worth. (adjusted for inflation)
I am 40. (shhhh….don’t tell anybody, it’s a big secret) I was a child of the 70′s. My mother was a full-time working woman. I was raised by baby sitters from the time I was 4 weeks old until age 2. From age two to five, I was raised in day care. From 5 to 11, I was in school and after school day care. From 11 years and up I was a latch-key kid at home by myself for several hours a day. I didn’t have very much parenting as a child. I really believe that when mothers started working outside the home things went down hill for society. As a girl in the 80′s, I was taught to believe that women were supposed to have a career. We could have it all if we wanted, a career and a family. I went to college, got my MBA, and made it big time as a software executive. Turning 30 made me want a child, and I decided that I didn’t want her raised by someone else. My husband, who also believed in a woman having a career, didn’t want me to leave my job which provided us with so much money. He chose to leave us because he didn’t want us to be a “financial burden”. I have made many scarifices and don’t have a lot of luxuries, but my daughter has never been in day care. I have changed my entire lifestyle to be a better mother for her. She is taught manners, respect, and skills. She has always done well in school and is never a behavior problem. I firmly believe that having a mother (or father) who places her children before anything else makes all the difference. I hear a lot of parents say their children are their top priority, but they aren’t. Their careers and what their paycheck can buy them is.
I really believe my generation suffered from lack of parenting. And, now, we don’t know how to be good parents.
Lori- I commend your choices. Sounds like you made the right choices.
My wife and I did the same thing. I was career Air Force (1964-1984). We decided to have children and since we both came from broken homes (post WWII)we wanted our children raised correctly with “Mom” staying home while Dad earned the money. Best decision we made as a couple.
Our girls are now 36 and 40 and they are people who are mature, responsible (now don’t get me wrong – there were problems) but because we were “family” they knew – when they need help ($$$ or advice) they came to me or Mom.
After I retired from Boeing in 2000 when the girls came asking for a few bucks, I said “I’m retired now so you are gonna have to see Mom.”
The response was “Aw Dad!” “Not Mom.” Yep, that is when they became budgeting experts. See, Dad wasn’t an easy tap anymore.
Both girls married the right guys. They were like their Mom – they stayed away from unreliable people. Now the lifelong friends they have are the type I’d invite to my Thanksgiving table. Good friends everyone.
We were lucky, we got out of the service when the girls were 12 and 8 years old. My wife and I wanted our daughters to have a stable home when they were going through the teenage years. Not wanting “Military Brats”.
No drugs, no smoking (not even pot), and being respectful by not getting pregnant. I won’t tell you they didn’t try to do some drinking – they did and didn’t really like it. They are the same today.
Since I was a AF Medic in charge of the O.B. Ward at Fairchild AFB, Spokane WA. My daughters knew where babies came from and understood their responsibilities as to not get pregnant without being married.
Giving young people responsibility and holding them accountable for their actions is part of maturing. Being an ADULT. Yes they will fail sometimes. But allowing for failure and giving them another chance to gain your respect back is the key to success.
Then there are some young people who just don’t get it. Lazy, ill-trained,
not caring about their future or wanting someone else to provide for them is what we are getting out of our high schools today. Most colleges will tell you that the incoming freshmen class lacks “basics”.
Sad report card on public education – for which we pay property taxes. Evaluate a high school graduate and see if their public education measures up to being able to qualify in the workforce. I don’t think I’m far wrong.
These slackers will be the ones we have have to avoid after a collapse or financial meltdown in this country. They will be easily led and eagerly follow the destructive mob of anarchy rioting in our streets.
Those of us who grew up after WWII – we were allowed to leave the house and go out and play with the neighborhood kids until Dad got home and we had to come in and eat supper. Then we’d run out and play again – like Kick the can, Hide and seek, climb trees to collect that blue robin’s egg, steal towels out of the house so when we jumped off the garage we’d have a cape like “Superman”. Play Cowboys and Indians or WAR with toy guns or the “Thompson Machine Gun” Dad cut out of a 1″ X 6″ board.
Yep we were a handfull. Mom used up many a switches on us boys. That lady could draw blood through LEVI’s with a switch. When we were especially BAD we had to wait for Dad to get home from work before we had to fess up to what we had been doing wrong. Dad had a razor strap he folder over and took us by one hand and whipped us while we ran in circles around him.
Paid the price for our misbehaving only once. It was not held over our heads after punishment was measured out to us.
Held accountable as young men? You bet your ___. Us boys turned into men my father was proud of – he even told us so.
That is the way to raise boys and girls into responsible adults. That is what we tried to do with our children. You know it worked.
What happened during the 1960 – 1980s, free love hippy drug using generation, and the psychology class teaching “Your okay – I’m Okay”
was a bunch of bunk – just Dr. Spock crap they tried to feed us.
The young people growing up in the 1960 to the 1990s were sometimes taught by parents who were not taught any parenting skills them selves – now they inturn are trying to raise children and good luck. . . . It ain’t gonna work.
An “about face” is in order to regain those nurturing parenting skills that corrected that child that threw a fit in the grocery store or Toys R Us store. That child needs discipline, limits set, limits reenforced and when applicable – punished correctly. A swat on that diaper gets their attention. I believe corporal punishment. I believe in spanking. I believe in using the belt when necessary. I believe in sitting down with the child and talking to them so they understand their behavior was wrong. So when they get the appropriate punishment they will understand why.
I DO NOT believe in BEATING a child. That is wrong.
I believe anyone who beats a child or beats his wife (girlfriend) deserves the same done to them by two men who can put a hurt on the offender. Hurt that offender enough so he’ll NEVER DO THAT AGAIN to a child or woman.
Now women – you can get under a guys skin very quickly and make them angry enough to beat you. You need to not let it get that far.
Enough said about discipline.
@Miss Lori; You are to be commended for your commitment to your child. I would caution you to not expect her to necessarily be grateful for it. Not that she’s not a good kid, it’s just that as children and teenagers we tend to not understand the respect a GOOD parent deserves. If your child does, then you are lucky and so much the better. After I turned 45 or so I would tell my mama “I’m sorry” every time I went to visit her. She would ask me what I was sorry for and I would just tell her “everything”. LOL. You are a hero! YOU sound like a very good parent. I can’t believe someone would just walk out on his family like that. What a cad. You have my prayers. Survive well. Enjoy.
Read an article a few days ago about the way the French parent and it was interesting. One of the topics above is that children have to have boundaries and one of the differences with the French is that when they said no they meant it, period. While the article described how American parents say no over and over again and with force and it seldom worked. Children do not take parents seriously anymore. It was not that someone had to beat a child into submission, but be steadfast and FAIR. There is too much room for children getting their way through the parent being unwilling to spend some time explaining to a child WHY. Severe overindulgence is another huge problem.
As I wrote above, it is my belief that many teenagers and especially younger children still have hope before they are set like a mold into what type of adult they become. This is why I say generation Y’ers are so doomed, because they have become set in their ways, the really bad ways. Most individuals are pretty set up for adults between age 15-25. There are of course exceptions, and some adults can also change their ways for the better. Unfortunately human beings are mostly conditioned to behave within the confides of conformity and social norms.
Fortunately most preppers have minds of their own and maybe this is what the masses don’t like. Preppers that have thoughts that are their own. They are going to do what is practical and makes sense to prepare for the what IF’s that seem to be occurring on a more frequent basis, and the inner selves that tell them that society is on a collision course with their own stupidity.
To: most of the bloggers who responded:
My father used to say the same things that Lauren and 1984 have said in the article and in the blogs afterward. I had no choice but to listen to him because he would tell us these same things while we were eating at the dinner table. I never argued with him because it was his house. He could say what he wanted. I was in grammer and high school at the time. I figured that the best I could do was to prove him wrong.
I was the youngest of 6 so I benefitted from benign neglect. (There were so many of us I could make my escape mess around and return before either mom or dad knew I was gone) As a family, we had to do so many things TOGETHER that it created a strong urge to break away from the shaggy hoard within me.
These were the original motivations for me to move away from my family home and make a living as a peace officer, fireman and paramedic within cities and in rural locations. My goal was to prove to my dad that some of us had guts to do the dirty jobs that others were afraid to do. We did not have a World War 2. Nobody was about to call me a member of the greatest generation. During my teens and twenties, I heard many older citizens call our generation worthless.
I am not that smart. I had trouble passing calculus. I had to take chemistry twice in order to pass. (Hint: take the difficult classes from the professor that speaks english as a native tongue. It is difficult to learn higher math from a Pakistani) Maybe the youngsters out there need to read these blogs to light a fire under their butts.
Today, the surviving members of my old Boy Scout Troop have amongst them several engineers, a police officer, a fire dept. battalion chief, several park rangers, and myself. Nobody in prison. Most are still alive.
Today I am more forgiving of my parents. They tried their best and I know that now. I have other siblings who are still angry at my parents. I simply tried to never ask them for help once I left home at age 17.
Along the way I had some good mentors. Since most of us bloggers are older, I hope that we will make some effort to teach these skills to the young ones at our places of work or other activities. Mentors and apprenticing youngsters will be what sustains the future economy. I currently try to mentor new staff at my place of work. I help hunters sight in and fix their deer rifles each fall prior to hunting season. I introduce people to the shooting sports through our local range. I have helped out kids and non-fishing parents catch their first fish.
When I find myself griping about dumb youngsters, I remember my dad and it makes me be quiet. Get out there and help somebody who is willing to learn. Life is full of teachable moments.
@ Ted K: Thank you for the work you do teaching others how to sight and use their rifles and teaching kids and some parents how to fish! You are absolutely right that life is full of teachable moments…what we, the teachers, learn from these moments is so important as well.
Stay well, Lauren