Youth?

What is it about our youth these days? I would not say our youth are any crueler than the youths of a few generations back. But I do believe the youth of today are more thinned skinned.

I had a fair share of being bullied when I was in school, but with being bullied by family members made me tougher and able to handle the bullies outside the family. I didn't care what others thought of me, but I was raised to think for myself and believe what I thought about myself was more important and meant more than what anyone else thought of or about me.

Our youth today are so caught up in believing what others think is more important than their own thoughts. We as an older generation need to teach the youth to respect themselves and not give others the power to alter their own self-image. Do words hurt, yes and I am not saying the hurt will stop just because you stop worrying about what others think. The hurt is because you have feelings. However, there is a big difference between hurting and letting the words control how you think about yourself and others.

I still fall back on the words my grandmother use to say to me, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." and "Treat others the way you would want to be treated."

I get it, for some it is hard to get past the hurt feelings, but our society has created a youth of thin skinned youth. The real world as an adult, there is no ability to be thin skinned, you do what you have to do and you live your life. We need to teach our youth how to deal with the feelings and survive the realities of life. Teach them how to protect their feelings, stand strong and grow.

Just like a tree, until it is grown it has to bend with the wind or it will break until it is strong enough to stand against the wind. This is what our youth should be learning. Not allow them to use their hurt feelings to dictate their actions.

As parents, we strive to protect our children, but in our rush to protect have we stopped teaching them how to protect themselves? I think we have and we need to get back to the teaching as well as continuing to protect.