When I was growing up, there was a mentality that every child deserves to have high self-esteem and to know that they are unique and special and capable of anything.
The trends with the next generation seem to be the opposite. I can't tell you how many parenting articles I've seen lately: Don't reward your kids for just participating because they don't need to get a reward for every little thing. Don't replace stuff your kids lose or break because even if they're five years old they should learn the value of a dollar. Don't teach your kids to share because it makes kids think everyone is entitled to everyone else's stuff.
I don't understand it. You know what, I'm GOING to reward my kids for participating, because it takes some of the sting out of losing, which hurts, and it reinforces that participation is important even if you don't win. I'm GOING to replace my five-year-old's broken favorite toy, without making her do chores to pay me back for it, because she's FIVE and deserves to be a CHILD for a while. And god damn I'm going to teach my kids to share, because people don't have to be entitled to something to be deserving of friendliness and compassion.
Parenting seems to be shifting from "Raise your child to put good out into the world" to "Raise your child to just accept that the world is shitty and they've got to make their own way in it" and those are fucking harsh lessons to teach a young child who still wants everything out of life. I'm sorry for wanting to teach my future children to be optimistic and to put good into the world where it's missing, rather than to develop a "me-first" attitude that puts pushing yourself ahead of everyone else before compassion.
It just doesn't make any sense to me.
/Rant
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