Dear Jackrabbit #22 — Adults are idiots

On social media, I often see memes or similarly formatted statements that goes something along the lines of:

  • “‘Like’ if you survived riding in the back of a pickup truck when you were a kid!” or
  • “‘Like’ if you rode your bike without a helmet without dying!” or
  • “‘Like’ if you got shot with a BB gun and lived to tell the tale!”

I hate these moronic blatherings. They never include the logical follow-up:

  • “If you did not survive any of this, raise your hand!”

No one is raising their hand? No one?

I wonder why.

Oh, yeah.

There is this odd trend among adults these days–particularly ones of my generation–to minimize things we do to make sure children are safe. They forget that not everyone we grew up with survived childhood. I don’t know what it is… maybe they feel themselves getting older and, perhaps, irrelevant, so in order to make themselves feel better they have to make you feel bad–or at least that your experiences growing up are not as impressive as their experiences.

It’s kind of sad, really.

Likewise, there is often criticism over giving out things like “‘participation awards” because the idea of losing at something should be character building. I kind of see their point, but aren’t they forgetting that they were the ones giving out the participation awards to begin with?

Adults are nuts. Or, at least, inconsistent. I guess that’s what makes us all human, but it also doesn’t mean you can’t call them out on it.

You’ll hear a lot of adults whine about how easy kids have it. Or how kids don’t feel they have to earn anything like they did. Or how kids are spoiled and expect everything to be handed to them.

Bullshit.

For one thing… the kids who are spoiled are generally so because their parents had a hand in it. But in reality, most kids are just trying to get along in a world they didn’t make, with rules they don’t always understand and which, often, make little sense. Adults criticize kids for not having jobs. Well… there aren’t any jobs for kids like there were in my day. The adults all have them because they allowed for an economy that hurts them (I don’t know… in the name of free market capitalism and the promise that everyone would be rich? Adults are idiots.)

Your uncle Tim had a paper route when he was a kid. Your uncle Andrew bagged groceries. Now adults deliver papers and bag groceries. I held down a bunch of dishwashing jobs. Now adults are doing most of those jobs because, as Americans, we’re so desperate for work that we’ll let people pay us an unlivable wage. So yeah… it’s tough to find part time work when you’re a kid–too much competition from hungry adults.

Ideally, we want you to enjoy those years while you can. Concentrate on school and other activities. I hope I never fall into the trap of making you feel lazy or entitled when you’re actually not.

A lot of us are trying to fix some of these problems, but there are a lot of people who would rather see people live in poverty than admit that maybe free-wheelin’ capitalism is far from perfect. I hope by the time you’re old enough to vote that you are laughing openly at how foolish we were.

So… sorry about the mess. It’s not your fault, it’s ours. Some of us are trying to fix it. Some of us are trying to be smart. At the time of writing this our country is a bit mired in a malevolent idiocracy, but this will pass. The question is can we repair it well enough and quick enough.

But maybe that’s a topic for another day. Just remember… you’re doing fine. You’re doing fine with what we’ve given you. Sorry it’s not more, but we’ll keep working toward making sure it’s at least enough.

All my love,

–Dad

Liked it? Take a second to support jdteehan on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

About jdteehan

John is a proud geek and nerd, a publisher, a freelancer, and a new dad. He's into books, gaming, and music. He's a good cook, a passing musician and artist, and terrible fisherman. The biggest thing in his life right now is being a new dad and he has started a blog all about that. Visit Dearjackrabbit.com for more on that. Also visit Merryblacksmith.com for word on publishing projects.
This entry was posted in Dear Jackrabbit, Fatherly Advice, Parenting, Uncategorized and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *