A good article which appeared a few weeks ago. I saved it but due to the heavy workload, I have not able to upload this. When you read this, you can't help but to relate to what is being said. Anyway, who ever said that parenting in easy and you don't "retire" from being a parent. So, it's a lifetime job. We can only pray that we have taught the kids enough to do well on their own. I do not been material wealth but that they are well grounded on differentiating right and wrong and also have some solid religious beliefs.
Until the next time, cheers.
The Star, 20 July 2011
Until the next time, cheers.
The Star, 20 July 2011
TEENS & TWEENS By CHARIS PATRICK
THE generation gap was a term popularised in the West during the 1960s, referring to how older and younger generations have different interests and communication styles at any one moment in time.
This is especially evident between tweens or teens and their parents.
Generational differences have existed throughout history, accentuated by rapid cultural change during the modern era, particularly with respect to such matters as musical tastes, fashion, culture and politics. In fact, it is difficult to imagine a time when parents and their teens did not have such differences.
In today’s context, if we are parents of tweens or teens, we are likely late baby boomers (i.e. post-World War II, born in the 1960s) or Gen X (born in the early 1970s).
Our teens and tweens, on the other hand, belong to Gen Z or the Net Generation (born between the early 1990s and early 2000s). What is the implication?
Young people used to grow up quickly, taking care of key responsibilities at home. Now, we no longer need them to do essential chores like farming, carpentry, milking cows or rubber-tapping – jobs that gave them a sense of usefulness and worth.
Even when teens work part-time, their earnings are not usually necessary for their family’s survival. Hence, teens have no status and no recognised place in society. In fact, we require them to be dependent and regimented until they acquire the education they need to find jobs in a technology-oriented society.
Today’s fast-changing world differs in many ways from the one we grew up in. In the good old kampung days, we would entertain ourselves with simple games such as marbles and catching spiders. Or we’d climb trees or play hide-and-seek. No one owned a TV at home and if someone in the kampung eventually did (even if it was just a black-and-white set), that household would be crowded with people, for obvious reasons. Then came colour TV, followed by VCR, when we could select what we wanted to watch whenever we wanted to. The only “high-tech” machine probably in our possession was the manual typewriter and by then, we thought to ourselves: “We have arrived!”
Remember the days we felt it was so cool to dance down the street with a Walkman playing a cassette tape? Pager beeping and you had to find a public phone to return call? The day you bought your first handphone and it was big enough for the ladies to use as a self-defence weapon? The list goes on and I can almost hear what my teenage client used to tell me: “Yeah ... last time policemen wore shorts!”
Fast forward to the 21st century, our teens and tweens now occupy themselves with PSP and Wii. They not only have a TV at home but it’s a matter of how many (in the name of preserving family harmony, no one needs to fight over the channels!), how big and how flat the TV is. They have not acquainted themselves with video tapes or VCR because they watch movies from Blu-ray players and thumb drives. In fact, as I am writing, we are moving into the era of Internet TV.
“What are cassette tapes and pagers? Can they be eaten?” they wonder. They now download songs into an iPod and you will see them dancing hip hop along the way.
Back in the early days of the mobile phone, people envied those who were able to own a handphone: “Wow, you have a handphone!”; today, if you don’t own one, the reaction tends to be: “You mean you don’t have a handphone?” or “You haven’t upgraded to a smartphone yet?”
Gen Z or Net Gen are often raised in dual-income or single-parent families. Aided by the rapid expansion in cable TV channels, satellite radio, the Internet and e-zines, they are incredibly sophisticated, technology-wise, immune to most traditional marketing and sales pitches as they not only grew up with it all, they’ve seen it all and been exposed to it all since early childhood. They will be more Internet-savvy than their Gen Y (born in the 1980s) forerunners.
Indeed, times have changed. To intensify the gap, teens are out of balance at the same time their parents are struggling with their own mid-life pressures. While teens are dismayed by each new pimple, parents may be agonising over each new wrinkle. While teens are thinking of the time ahead and the opportunities it will bring, parents are beginning to think of time remaining and the opportunities that are diminishing. While teens are gradually acquiring personal power, parents are often beginning to confront their own limitations.
Is closing the gap ever possible? We will take a look at it in a fortnight.
Charis Patrick is a trainer and family life educator who is married with four children.
THE generation gap was a term popularised in the West during the 1960s, referring to how older and younger generations have different interests and communication styles at any one moment in time.
This is especially evident between tweens or teens and their parents.
Generational differences have existed throughout history, accentuated by rapid cultural change during the modern era, particularly with respect to such matters as musical tastes, fashion, culture and politics. In fact, it is difficult to imagine a time when parents and their teens did not have such differences.
In today’s context, if we are parents of tweens or teens, we are likely late baby boomers (i.e. post-World War II, born in the 1960s) or Gen X (born in the early 1970s).
Our teens and tweens, on the other hand, belong to Gen Z or the Net Generation (born between the early 1990s and early 2000s). What is the implication?
Young people used to grow up quickly, taking care of key responsibilities at home. Now, we no longer need them to do essential chores like farming, carpentry, milking cows or rubber-tapping – jobs that gave them a sense of usefulness and worth.
Even when teens work part-time, their earnings are not usually necessary for their family’s survival. Hence, teens have no status and no recognised place in society. In fact, we require them to be dependent and regimented until they acquire the education they need to find jobs in a technology-oriented society.
Today’s fast-changing world differs in many ways from the one we grew up in. In the good old kampung days, we would entertain ourselves with simple games such as marbles and catching spiders. Or we’d climb trees or play hide-and-seek. No one owned a TV at home and if someone in the kampung eventually did (even if it was just a black-and-white set), that household would be crowded with people, for obvious reasons. Then came colour TV, followed by VCR, when we could select what we wanted to watch whenever we wanted to. The only “high-tech” machine probably in our possession was the manual typewriter and by then, we thought to ourselves: “We have arrived!”
Remember the days we felt it was so cool to dance down the street with a Walkman playing a cassette tape? Pager beeping and you had to find a public phone to return call? The day you bought your first handphone and it was big enough for the ladies to use as a self-defence weapon? The list goes on and I can almost hear what my teenage client used to tell me: “Yeah ... last time policemen wore shorts!”
Fast forward to the 21st century, our teens and tweens now occupy themselves with PSP and Wii. They not only have a TV at home but it’s a matter of how many (in the name of preserving family harmony, no one needs to fight over the channels!), how big and how flat the TV is. They have not acquainted themselves with video tapes or VCR because they watch movies from Blu-ray players and thumb drives. In fact, as I am writing, we are moving into the era of Internet TV.
“What are cassette tapes and pagers? Can they be eaten?” they wonder. They now download songs into an iPod and you will see them dancing hip hop along the way.
Back in the early days of the mobile phone, people envied those who were able to own a handphone: “Wow, you have a handphone!”; today, if you don’t own one, the reaction tends to be: “You mean you don’t have a handphone?” or “You haven’t upgraded to a smartphone yet?”
Gen Z or Net Gen are often raised in dual-income or single-parent families. Aided by the rapid expansion in cable TV channels, satellite radio, the Internet and e-zines, they are incredibly sophisticated, technology-wise, immune to most traditional marketing and sales pitches as they not only grew up with it all, they’ve seen it all and been exposed to it all since early childhood. They will be more Internet-savvy than their Gen Y (born in the 1980s) forerunners.
Indeed, times have changed. To intensify the gap, teens are out of balance at the same time their parents are struggling with their own mid-life pressures. While teens are dismayed by each new pimple, parents may be agonising over each new wrinkle. While teens are thinking of the time ahead and the opportunities it will bring, parents are beginning to think of time remaining and the opportunities that are diminishing. While teens are gradually acquiring personal power, parents are often beginning to confront their own limitations.
Is closing the gap ever possible? We will take a look at it in a fortnight.
Charis Patrick is a trainer and family life educator who is married with four children.
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