What’s Wrong with American Parenting?

What’s wrong with parenting the American way? Simply put, nothing – it’s virtually non-existent! Generally, parents in the United States seem to take the position that the child will grow on their own so there is little need for input from the parent. Of course, this could hardly be any wronger: a child is like a dog in the house – I apologize for the grisly analogy – and they learn only what things you teach them. If you teach them nothing, they grow up to be whatever; and I guarantee you, whatever is not a pleasant thing to grow up and become.

Kids need discipline. I apologize again, but I’m not talking about discipline like “go up to your room and stay there,” or “you’re grounded for a week,” or “you’re not coming to Oakland with us this summer”; if you are going to discipline a child, you’re going to have to do it with something instant and immediate, and something the child worries about, something that will make them decidedly never want to make the same mistake again. I’m not talking about brutalizing your kid, but you totally have to do better than merely threatening or spanking them.

France gets it right, and Africa does too. Chinese in fact are almost entirely on point with raising kids and aiming them at being more in life than their parents were, insisting on courtesy and chivalry, education and discipline, and dedication to any one course that they find worthy. This explains why crime rates in these parts of the world are significantly lower than in the United States of America, and why children grow up with a purpose in life, and not just anything.

What’s wrong with American parenting? America got soft, lazy, fearful; America ties the hand of the parent by laws that allow the kid to threaten the parent with possible civil action or police interference. Problem is, the same child grows up undisciplined and cares little for the family unit. Ergo, more families are started up which are doomed to fall or fail before they are strong enough to stand on their own; ergo, more children grow up without the right kind of discipline and upbringing that would make them positive pillars of society… and America wonders why the economy is failing.

A lot can be done differently, but it’s best if it starts with raising the kids right. How? A little more discipline. The Good Book says we should “train up a child in the way that he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it.” It’s simple enough: the child may fight and resist while he is growing, but when he is old he will not depart from it – he will remember those old ways and live up to them. Strange how so many Americans hate or disregard the Bible; the Book speaks only truths… and peace… and love. Is that really too much to desire, so bad to crave? When the law asked for separation of church and state, congress probably thought it was doing the right thing, but then decades later it is apparent that the economy, the society, and the children are so much worse off for it, especially since they never learned to love or live in peace – they never learned ‘the Truth’ when they were growing up. And so they grow up damaged.

What’s wrong with American parenting? America forgot God, Jesus, and the Bible; tried to go it alone. A stream that forgets its source dries up – it’s that simple. America as a nation needs to return to God.