Interesting Thoughts from Albert Mohler's Blog

Albert Mohler has an interesting post today about "the death of the grown up." Very interesting discussion of a book written by Diana West that discusses the shift in Western culture over the past 50 years or so from mature adults being seen as authority figures and the source of wisdom to the so-called "wise child." Please read the article. I found it interesting, disturbing and extremely accurate.

In fact, much of what bothers me about letters that come home from school, ways the teachers talk to the students and approach their interactions, the philosophy behind the school mission statements and things, and a lot of the "parenting" advice that I read, and even some of the ways parents talk to their kids these days stems from this shift, I think. Have you ever watched a mom on the playground or out and about who pleads and reasons and cajoles a kid who is obviously not listening or obeying like she's afraid of him or something rather than being able to step up and be the MOM and take charge? And I've been there, too. I've bought into modern parenting philosophies without even realizing it and had to retrain myself in how to step up and be the adult. I have been annoyed by so many things I see in this way, but I could never put my finger on what it was that bothered me, and this is it. It is the shift from adults being authority figures to everyone bowing to the all wise child. I could say so much more about this.

Dr. Mohler's article from yesterday also fits in to all this, too, I think. Please read this one, too, which is also interesting and disturbing. In it he is discussing how kids are so media saturated that it's really scary, in my opinion. At the end of the article he quotes a pediatrician who basically says we just need to accept that this (the media saturation) is the way it is and learn to deal with it. Ummmm, again, why can't parents say no to some of the media saturation? We do. My kids do not have TVs in their bedrooms and they don't watch just any old thing, and our TV is not on all day, and my 11-year-old does not have a cell phone...and won't for the forseeable future, and we monitor the time they are online, too. It can be done. But it involves being the adult and setting rules and not bowing to everything the kid wants.