Progress or just spoiled kids?

Man, I remember back in my elementary school days, we were practically rolling up to class in nothing but Keds and flip-flops, and that was even back during the old socialist era.

If you check YouTube, just below little Fritz, there’s a clip of his father reacting to a "disobedient" computer.
It’s the exact same lines and the same reactions, just dressed up in a suit and a bit more subtle.
The kid didn't need to travel far to learn how things work. He learned it right at home.

darkhawk30 said:If you check YouTube, just below little Fritz, there’s a clip of his father reacting to a "disobedient" computer.
It’s the exact same lines and the same reactions, just dressed up in a suit and a bit more subtle.
The kid didn't need to travel far to learn how things work. He learned it right at home.

I can't seem to track it down myself; I keep running into nothing but bad dubbing and terrible translations, but the father is nowhere to be found.

amberfox4 said:I can't seem to track it down myself; I keep running into nothing but bad dubbing and terrible translations, but the father is nowhere to be found.

I guess I didn't make myself clear enough.
Just search YouTube for "angry German kid with his dad" if you really want to lose your mind.
That'll give you plenty of "examples" to choose from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCWExxwIj6Q

Brandon Newman95 said:Here's my take: I finished high school about nine years ago. Is it progress or just pure entitlement? It's hard to say.
As for sitting in a classroom at 90 degrees without air conditioning—yeah, that sucks. Kids can't focus, they're overheated, it's stuffy, and everything else. Opening a window doesn't do much when it's a heatwave. Back in the day, AC was a luxury, but nowadays it's a necessity. I remember traveling across the state once and I was literally drenched in sweat. So yeah, I don't think it's easy for the kids either.
Regarding technology and being spoiled, honestly, it's a bit of both.
Tech is getting insane, and parents who are constantly working try to make up for their lack of time by buying their kids material stuff.
I was born in '81, so I started school around '87 or '88. The gap between us and kids today wasn't massive (there were rich kids and poor kids, but we looked out for each other) until things shifted around '91 when the war hit. That's when the divide really started showing, though still nothing compared to today.
When I talk to teachers now, they all say the same thing: every generation gets worse, kids have no respect for authority, they call their parents for every tiny little thing, and it's just not what it used to be.
We were basically the generation where computers were rare, cell phones didn't exist yet—just payphones, PlayStations, and stuff like that.
And yeah, I'm with hannah3 on this one.

I actually started school at the same time you did. First off, it wasn't nearly as scorching hot back then, and as far as AC goes, almost no buildings had it... or rather, you couldn't even afford it if you wanted to. Air conditioning showed up sometime in the 90s and was insanely expensive, but now it's much more affordable. If you're thirsty, you drink a glass of water; if you're hot, you turn on the AC. My grandfather had absolutely miserable conditions at school compared to what I had, so progress has definitely been made. Why should we halt that progress just because we don't want to look like fools by "spoiling" kids with AC in classrooms?

Our generation definitely had computers—we had the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga 500, and Nintendo consoles long before the PlayStation arrived... so it's not true that we didn't have tech. Cell phones started popping up around '92 or '93. By '94, when we were starting high school, you were a total legend if you owned a phone because they cost like a thousand bucks back then. In elementary school, you were the big man on campus if your friends could come over to play "Commodore." It’s exactly the same dynamic as it is today.

Jason Campbell7 said:What kind of school has a garbage principal who won't let kids dress how they want? Back in the old days, we showed up to school however we felt, but now they're trying to apply these "modern" pedagogical trends fueled by some sort of hypocritical moralizing... it's gross.

It’s the same thing that probably drove me crazy back then. We had way more freedom; you could basically show up in whatever. I remember people walking into school wearing low-cut tops, black thongs peeking out under white pants, or just super short skirts and stuff like that.

restlessbison4 said:I honestly feel like everyone’s just stuck in this endless, grinding loop lately—parents and kids alike. Look, let's assume you've got parents who are actually decent, smart people, genuinely trying to instill some real human values in their children. But in this constant rat race we call modern life, where every job demands every ounce of your time and sanity, most days are just swallowed up by chores and obligations. You spend all your energy just meeting the baseline requirements of survival before you even get to the actual reason you're working in the first place: providing for yourself and, more importantly, your kids. By the time you actually have a moment to focus on them, you're just completely burnt out. It breeds this constant, low-level irritability because there’s zero downtime. Nowadays, the individual, the family—we're all just slaves to our jobs, our mortgages, and these ever-expanding consumerist cravings that force us to work even harder. And what can we realistically expect from our kids? They don't even get to be kids—they don't get to be those free, carefree little beings who just play. As soon as they hit school, they start noticing the gaps, feeling miserable because they don't have the same stuff as everyone else. Then it falls back on the parents who have to scramble to make sure their kids aren't left behind, just so they don't feel inferior. It's a vicious cycle.
Personally, I don't even have kids, and I can barely manage my own basic life after the daily madness.
I don't know, something feels fundamentally broken in America..

I wouldn't necessarily agree that things were better back in the day; let's face it, people live at a frantic pace now and deal with a mountain of responsibilities and material needs. Maybe your parents worked a factory shift from 6 AM to 2 PM and then you could act like a genius and have the whole afternoon to do whatever you wanted.
But even "back then," if you had an intellectual job, you worked all day too. If you wanted to build something... well, a huge number of people actually did. Our parents' generation would build vacation homes down by the coast or take on side gigs just to scrape together some extra cash... Basically, if you wanted to create something, it was the same then as it is now. Even my great-grandfather, who was a merchant, worked hard and had more than most.
Besides, capitalism and the drive to acquire material goods have existed since we were living in caves... Saying that life is more frantic in 2008 compared to the past... it just doesn't hold water for me.

Henry Moore2 said:It’s the same thing that probably drove me crazy back then. We had way more freedom; you could basically show up in whatever. I remember people walking into school wearing low-cut tops, black thongs peeking out under white pants, or just super short skirts and stuff like that.

Look, I’ll take freedom over being stifled any day. Even if the people in charge turn out to be total trash—and let's face it, they always seem to suck regardless of who's running things—at least we can breathe.

Look,
let them choose their own path, why not? Who else is going to fight for them if they don't do it themselves? I don't see anything wrong with that. Good for them.

Jason Campbell7 said:Look, I’ll take freedom over being stifled any day. Even if the people in charge turn out to be total trash—and let's face it, they always seem to suck regardless of who's running things—at least we can breathe.

Oh, sure. And why stop there? Let's just have 14-year-old girls walking through high school hallways dressed like total trash. Real classy stuff right there.

feralhound55 said:Great. I don't buy the "fake" argument—I've seen plenty of examples in real life.

Uh... finding that balance is tough... (assuming, since I don't have kids yet) especially when you're coming from an unstable household.

Just a quick thought—parents trying to make up for a lack of affection with material stuff doesn't automatically lead to spoiled kids. Not if there isn't much to begin with. Speaking from experience. It's actually why I spend so much time thinking about how to raise a healthy, happy kid.

It goes even deeper than that—parents actively encourage them to waste their childhood glued to some mindless video games or staring at the TV. My own parents used to do the exact same thing when they watched my brother's kids... "Oh, I need to get something done, let me water the garden, just let them watch cartoons." That was the cycle until I finally convinced them to give the kids actual chores to help out. Now, those little ones are washing dishes, watering the plants, and folding laundry with total focus, even though they're only four years old.
We really ought to establish preschools where children actually engage in real work, like tending to a garden, for instance.

Amanda Kern2 said:Why shouldn't kids have AC in their classrooms? Look, I don't have children, but if someone tries to lecture me about how "spoiled" today's generation is just because they want air conditioning, they're missing the point entirely. I grew up in schools where we were sweating through our shirts in 95-degree heat, or dealing with playground equipment that felt like it was melting under the sun. Is it really "oppressive" to want to give our kids the best? If it's within my means, and I had a kid, I’d be looking at a chauffeur driving them to school and classrooms equipped with climate control and mahogany desks. Anyone calling this hypocritical—especially compared to how most parents actually handle upbringing and education—is clearly deluded.
What kids possess, and the specific things they have, only matters if you approach the situation with the right mindset.
Graham and Mikimiki hit the nail on the head here.

There is a massive difference between giving them the best and just giving them everything... ☕

Henry Moore2 said:I’ve actually dealt with a few scenes just like that with my former sister-in-law’s little one. Total chaos in restaurants, throwing fits on the floor at McDonald's because he didn't get the specific toy he wanted, even cursing out the waitress because they were serving PepsiCo instead of Coca-Cola... he’d even go as far as ripping his own clothes off. The kid was only about three years old at the time.

Honestly, back in the day, you’d probably give him a good smack to settle him down after an outburst like that, but nowadays, people call that abuse... 🙂 🙄

Nicole Allen10 said:I honestly think it all boils down to how much quality time parents actually carve out for their kids when they’re drowning in work. That’s the heart of the issue right there.

Parents have always had jobs, obviously—it’s just that back in the day, people were clocking out by six and getting home around two, so there was actually a window to sit down and really talk with the kids...

Morgan Rodriguez57 said:Honestly, back in the day, you’d probably give him a good smack to settle him down after an outburst like that, but nowadays, people call that abuse... 🙂 🙄

Yes, I find myself in agreement there, yet the fundamental question remains why a child would ever reach such a state of behavior in the first place. When we were growing up here in the States, I don't recall seeing this level of conduct—this specific type of entitlement, throwing tantrums on the floor, and all those other foolish displays.

amberfox4 said:Yes, I find myself in agreement there, yet the fundamental question remains why a child would ever reach such a state of behavior in the first place. When we were growing up here in the States, I don't recall seeing this level of conduct—this specific type of entitlement, throwing tantrums on the floor, and all those other foolish displays.

It definitely happened back then, but things usually got sorted out pretty quickly... 😉

If I had even dared to throw something on the floor back in my day, my mom would have given me such a piece of her mind that I’d be feeling it for a week. It was just how things were. But nowadays? Kids get reported to the school board or something just for doing that.

Henry Moore2 said:If I had even dared to throw something on the floor back in my day, my mom would have given me such a piece of her mind that I’d be feeling it for a week. It was just how things were. But nowadays? Kids get reported to the school board or something just for doing that.

Honestly, it's just appalling.🙄

Henry Moore2 said:Oh, sure. And why stop there? Let's just have 14-year-old girls walking through high school hallways dressed like total trash. Real classy stuff right there.

Look, those are extreme outliers—maybe 0.001% of kids—and using them as an excuse to ban shorts or anything else is honestly ridiculous. Take Japan, for example. Even there, where teen sexuality is a massive social issue and practically a trend, uniforms don't stop anything. If anything, some guys find the uniform look way more appealing than just seeing skin. Thankfully, we're worlds away from that kind of thing here in the States (both literally and figuratively).
Uniforms, if you ask me, only make sense in boarding schools—the kind we don't really have here. You know, places where parents intentionally pay a premium to hand over their child's upbringing to an institution. If that institution runs on strict discipline and the parents are totally on board with that style of parenting (regardless of the potential downsides), then fine, a uniform fits. In those cases, it's mandatory and baked into the tuition, so parents don't even have to worry about food, discipline, clothing, or basically any other need except during school breaks. But doing it this way? It’s just pointless.