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Common Sense?
Posted under How I See It by Mike
I was discussing with a colleague of mine recently about our impending job loses. Since she and I will be heading out the same door at about the same time our conversation ventured into the current job market. Talk about depressing.
In our discussion she had an interesting insight about us as the older applicants in the job market. She argued that we as older job seekers tend to fare better than our younger counterparts. Her reasoning was that our generation (baby boomers) have been imparted with the knowledge of good “common sense.”
As a parent, I had to applaud her reasoning. We of this generation have done our children a disservice by not grounding them in a foundation of good common sense.
Those of you who are parents of pre teens or teenagers, you know it. Watch your kids freak out if the microwave stops working. How will they “cook” their meal? How many of you had your child beg you to let them tattoo or pierce something on their body? The radio in their car doesn’t work so they though it was a good idea to just use their ipod and earphones.
I’m not judging our children’s intelligence. The children we are raising have the intellect to do more than we could ever hope to. What parent isn’t constantly getting their ass handed to them on Guitar Hero or some Wii game?
Why won’t they let me win sometimes?
Hell, I haven’t been able to help my kids with their school work since they started the eighth grade. And yes, I have a college degree! My sixteen year old brought her math homework home the other day and it looked like she was working on the formula for creating an atom bomb.
Common sense is not learned in school. It’s learned at home. Many parents have forgotten that for kids to survive in this world they need the knowledge to know that not everything is grey. Sometimes the answer is black and white.
I’m working my butt off trying to impart some common sense into my kids. It’s an uphill battle. I don’t let them get away with anything without a lesson on wise vs unwise decisions.
I hope it pays off.
As for the pic..I can really see some mother allowing a child to get a tramp stamp… I’m already dismayed of the recent trend of parents giving their 16 year old daughters breast implants for their birthday.
Hammer’s last blog post..The bright side to this recession
I think back about some of the things we did at that age and I think maybe the lack of common sense is just a developmental stage.
citizen of the world’s last blog post..Vegetable gardening – an exercise in foolish optimism.
heh, the last one is classic:) I’ve had people say stuff like that to me because of nerves or stress.
Good luck with the job hunt man.
I’m thinking every generation of parents could say the same about their offspring. Our kids will probably talk about how their kids have no common sense either.
Tara R.’s last blog post..Random Wednesday ~ sharing the wealth
I think we’re in a steady decline of common sense. It just keeps diminshing with every generation. Should be really interesting in a few years.
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I agree with you, Mike. I think our generation of “positive parenting” where kids get trophies for just playing on a team is a good example. I know parents who never want to discourage their kids from doing anything, so they go along with it all. That’s how kids now wind up with degrees in Philosophy and no job. No one ever told them, “hey, don’t expect to get a job with that” like we were told. You wouldn’t believer how many of College Daughter’s peers are majoring in things like dance and acting. I sure wouldn’t be paying for that…..
Cocotte’s last blog post..Meme Me
Amen my friend! Its getting worse and worse. I will add that the media doesn’t help either.
augh… don’t get me started!
Oscar’s last blog post..You Don’t Know Jack
I agree that today’s youth seem to lack the common sense thing. I mean, what happens if their automatic lock/unlock on the keychain goes dead? How will they get in their car?!
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I can totally relate to the school homework! I’m in the same boat with my son!
Great Dilbert cartoon.
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This is a very good post.
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Amen, brother!
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Brilliant post! And I loved that Dilbert strip.
They don’t have any common sense anymore. And very little work ethic. How have we raised an entire generation like this?
You can’t teach common sense. Sometimes you have to let kids figure things out on their own and fail a few times. I agree with Cocotte, that too much “positive parenting” can be a disservice to our children.
“common sense” HAAAA HAAAAA …..teaching that to my teenagers….ahhh hell who am I kidding….I’ve given up trying!!!
Heather’s last blog post..Brain explosions….who would have thunk it???
I’m doing my best to teach the kids common sense, but it’s so hard!
Common sense happens when parents set a good example and then get out of their kids’ way. A tramp-stamp for a seven year-old girl is just plain creepy.
But yeah, the homework? Forget it!
Love the pic of the little girl.
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Interesting post!
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