I remember being a child...But I haven't been one for a long time. I think my childhood ended around the age of 17 or so when I left home and began my own journey in life, independently of parental guidance. I had responsibilities to consider: job, partner, financial, lifestyle, emotional, social, future...You know, the usual suspects.
I think I did a reasonable job, admittedly with a few mistakes, dead ends and do-overs along the way. Ten years later I owned multiple properties, managed 500 people was happily married and looked to the future with some expectation of compounding my ten years of life into even greater results.
Today I came across this school crossing and it made me think about children these days. I've italicised children because these days it seems the term applies to those under 30 years of age rather than those of a particularly young age. I find this strange and quite disconcerting from a future-perspective considering that these child-adults are the future of society and indeed mankind itself.
I'm not sure when the age of taking responsibility was lifted into the upper 20's and early 30's however it seems that's the case. It probably follows society's pursuit of mediocrity and hand-out ethos. And I probably can't limit to just those ages above either...It seems like responsibility is well out of fashion in general.
I don't think I need to give examples, besides I'd not like to injure the fragile sensibilities of the children, or should that be chiladults?
Life isn't easy; Anyone who has lived a little of it should know that. However it seems modern society is intent upon making it easy, removing responsibility - and therefore any potential for loss, disappointment - and giving people a false sense of comfort. My concern though, is that this behaviour removes the lessons learned through adversity - Lessons that may be required in life. I don't know, maybe it won't matter...But maybe there won't be someone to pick up the pieces, take away the pain, responsibility and consequences that occur throughout life.
But then again, what do I know? I'm not a millennial who knows it all.
