<p>lol if i act cranky at home my parents put me in line. they are pretty helicopter-y when it comes to academic things but they have harsh discipline. it works–i don’t remember the last time i ever talked back 
but sometimes i do get kind of jealous of my friends’ parents. one of my friends got yelled at the other day by her mom and her mom actually apologized. imagine that :)</p>
<p>Oh I love stuff like this. Please. I don’t see a lot of wimps fighting in Iraq–and I know too many young men who are going there or coming back.</p>
<p>And the NYT just ran an article yesterday about how this generation is taller, healthier, and heavier than any previous generation by a LOT. (Apparently the biggest problem with Civil War re-enactments is that the re-enactors can’t fit into authentic-sized tents.)</p>
<p>dmd77, didn’t you love that article? It was almost embarrassing to be living in this generation, with the comparison of the guy (obese) and a photo of his ancestor in the civil war who may have had typhus but looked pretty good!</p>
<p>I just came across this article on Reddit.com. Some of the points have been pondered elsewhere on this site but still–food for thought.</p>
<p><a href=“A Case of Catch-22 | Psychology Today”>A Case of Catch-22 | Psychology Today;
<p>Oh please. This is not aimed at mommusic, but this is so wearisome. Every generation is the worst. Every group of parents is failing. The country is going to he**. It sells.</p>
<p>Psychology Today isn’t even a very legitimate psychology magazine. Our AP Psych teacher would pull out their articles as examples of how NOT to write psych reports. Most of the time the studies they cite in their articles don’t even follow basic research methods protocol, like seleting random target populations or not inferring causation from correlation. </p>
<p>There aren’t any basic statistics to back up any of the claims. Just a few anecdotes about crazy parents who called at 2am to protest their kid’s C in an economics class. And you’re suppose to conclude from that that America’s next generation is one of wimps?</p>
<p>Ok, how did my comment end up on someone else’s thread? I look pretty silly putting a link up this late in the discussion. Please disregard.</p>
<p>Tsdad–obviously, you’re not paying attention. Here’s an SAT question to help you be a better parent:</p>
<p>Today’s parents are:</p>
<p>a) coddling their kids–next thing you know, they’ll be hirin’ someone to carry them so their darlings’ feet don’t ever touch the ground</p>
<p>b) criminally overstressing them by scheduling them for ninety hours of tutoring, SAT prep, and five sports a season, all the while berating them with “you’ll never get into Harvard and be a world class orthopedic surgeon/lawyer/professional athlete if you don’t try harder.”</p>
<p>c) criminally neglecting them. You wish they were raised by wolves; at least someone would be raisin’ em. </p>
<p>d) all of the above.</p>
<p>The correct answer, according to pop psychology magazines, people who glanced at them at their dentist’s waiting room, and your next door neighbor who talked to someone who has an in, is, of course,</p>
<p>e) all of the above, plus a lot of bad stuff we didn’t actually get into. It’s a wonder your overstressed, lazy, neglected, babied offspring haven’t singlehandedly ended civilization as we know it–and when they do, it will be your fault.</p>
<p>This article didn’t strike me as any more or less profound than those found in Newsweek, Time or even the NYTimes. I don’t care what anybody says–there was not the level of blotto binge drinking going on at colleges thirty years ago that there appears to be now (based on statistics). Most of the kids engaging in this behavior seem to have had every advantage, and are obviously intelligent so why would so many choose to binge drink regularly? I’m grateful for any media attention to the matter, as well as any attempts to identify or even speculate on the root causes.</p>
<p>Let me add to what Emerald and Anymom wrote. Following are some lines from one of the all-time creepiest, stalker songs. What group? What singer?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Beautiful sounding song. But really, really scary when you listen to the words.</p>
<p>“every breath you take…I’ll be watching you”</p>
<p>Stalker anthem</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yea, 30 years ago college students were too stoned on grass to do any drinking.</p>
<p>Choose your poison.</p>
<p>I saw something a while back on college kids in Japan. Apparently they really party it up there, more so then here, maybe BECAUSE their parents push them really hard in high school and prior. </p>
<p>One of the more famous Puritan ministers had a saying: “Dammed waters, once released, flow more freely.”</p>
<p>Can anyone verify the Japan thing?</p>
<p>Dadguy:</p>
<p>The educational system in Japan and Korea is very different from ours. In Japan and Korea, the competition for admission into top universities (Tokyo and Seoul respectively) is fierce; a diploma from either is considered a ticket for a good career; and in Japan, this meant guaranteed lifetime employment until very recently. This is why k-12 education is so stressful in these two countries and why college is by comparison quite unchallenging. </p>
<p>So college students party hard, not necessarily because they were pushed so hard in high school but because once they are in top colleges, they have it made, essentially.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying :)<br>
Memory does not improve with age :(</p>
<p>Dads: Sorry, beg to differ. At my school, pot use was not at all widespread. In fact, based on statistics I’ve seen, MOST students around 1970 did NOT use drugs. I posted an article by Michael Barrone about this a while back. It’s maybe 30% of the kids then who have given all boomers of that era that rep. It’s just not true. Most kids then were still fairly conservative. They did not binge drink anywhere the numbers kids are doing now, either. </p>
<p>I think you’re doing a real disservice to the kids who read this board (and thread) to imply that we were all stoned out of our minds if we were in college at that time. </p>
<p>In other words, speak for yourself unless you have some real numbers to back up your assertions (for mine, see mini’s many posts on the stats on college age binge drinking on this board).</p>
<p>hs,</p>
<p>you could be right…but for some reason, I can’t remember if you are ;)</p>
<p>When? What? Who?</p>
<p>Actually drugs were regarded as bad politics, and I stayed away from them.</p>
<p>oh I dunno
I considered using drugs that were important to other cultures as part of broadening my horizons
( I also took Carlos Castenada, very seriously)</p>
<p>I graduated from high school in '73 and it was pretty druggy. In fact, if you DIDN’T use drugs (like me) you were considering a weirdo and uncool. When I got to college and roadtripped to several Ivies, they were either blotto drunk or stoned out of their minds. Binge drinking? Too busy on LSD, qualudes or whatever was available is what I remember.</p>