Kids must grow up cyber smart. Kids must grow up drug-free. Kids must grow up healthy, crime-free, street smart, choose a good career and the challenges keep building in our ever-increasingly fast-paced world. A world that has become increasingly complex with technology, media bombardment, a new breed of peer pressure and unreasonable expectations of parents who are too busy to stop, look and listen. On top of all this, young kids growing up must still contend with the the physical changes they must go through as adolescents going through the changes inflicted by puberty.
Young people growing up just want to have fun! They want to belong, enjoy the music, wear the clothes, talk on their cell phones and just be one of the guys. An increasing number of them live close to or below poverty level, belong to single parent families or gay parents. They see teens who are chastised for becoming pregnant, forty year-old women criticized for having babies at that age; they see marriage giving way to friendship relationships and a bizarre list of new standards that are rapidly replacing what was considered to be the norm. It’s a real dilemma for young children today!
There is some consolation in knowing that every generation of youth has faced challenges of adapting to changes in societal mores. Every generation has made it through. As the celebrity role model Will Smith advised his son : “You don’t have a problem that someone else has not already faced and solved. SO go find the solution son!” Sure, the kids of today face greater challenges than ever before. Somehow they will make it through too. But the street smart ones will have the edge!