Culture Killed the Alpha Male
Just saw this article in Time. I think this is a reason so many guys have their work cut out for them, with so many parents "wussi-fying" their kids. Even their girls!
The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
The insanity crept up on us slowly; we just wanted what was best for our kids. We bought macrobiotic cupcakes and hypoallergenic socks, hired tutors to correct a 5-year-old's "pencil-holding deficiency," hooked up broadband connections in the treehouse but took down the swing set after the second skinned knee. We hovered over every school, playground and practice field — "helicopter parents," teachers christened us, a phenomenon that spread to parents of all ages, races and regions. Stores began marketing stove-knob covers and "Kinderkords" (also known as leashes; they allow "three full feet of freedom for both you and your child") and Baby Kneepads (as if babies don't come prepadded).
The mayor of a Connecticut town agreed to chop down three hickory trees on one block after a woman worried that a stray nut might drop into her new swimming pool, where her nut-allergic grandson occasionally swam. A Texas school required parents wanting to help with the second-grade holiday party to have a background check first. Schools auctioned off the right to cut the carpool line and drop a child directly in front of the building — a spot that in other settings is known as handicapped parking.
We were so obsessed with our kids' success that parenting turned into a form of product development. Parents demanded that nursery schools offer Mandarin, since it's never too soon to prepare for the competition of a global economy. High school teachers received irate text messages from parents protesting an exam grade before class was even over; college deans described freshmen as "crispies," who arrived at college already burned out, and "teacups," who seemed ready to break at the tiniest stress.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1940395,00.html?cnn=yes#ixzz0XVotgpUt
LOVE this one:
"10 is the new 2. We're infantilizing our kids into incompetence." She celebrates seat belts and car seats and bike helmets and all the rational advances in child safety. It's the irrational responses that make her crazy, like when Dear Abby endorses the idea, as she did in August, that each morning before their kids leave the house, parents take a picture of them. That way, if they are kidnapped, the police will have a fresh photo showing what clothes they were wearing. Once the kids make it home safe and sound, you can delete the picture and take a new one the next morning.
WTF?
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CARLOS COMMENTS:
Yeah, it has gone WAY overboard.
Everyone needs to relax their sphincters a little, take a deep breath and REEEEE-lax.
Your kids will do better if you let them actually EXPERIENCE the world.
Here's a little thought: in the traditional role of man and woman (not saying I support it), men are the hunter/gatherers: the primary breadwinners that work all day, and women are the caretakers. Saw that other article that said 4 out of 10 women are the breadwinners, now so for 60% of the people… most fathers are away most of the time.
Guess what that means? Boys are raised by women the majority of the time, and most women don't get boys… or men, just like most men don't get women… or girls. The result is obvious: men are feminized since childhood because they're mostly raised with a woman's values. It's the reason why men think flowers, candy, taking her to a restaurant etc. create attraction.