Raising Children Or Razing Children

●raise\ˈrāz
: to lift or move (something or someone) to a higher position.

●raze\ˈrāz
: to destroy (something, such as a building) completely.

I have for my entire life observed that the previous (older) generation has a habit of criticizing the current (younger) generation due to their value systems, work ethics, morals etc. or lack of.

What I almost never hear is any claim of personal responsibility for those who raised, or should I say razed this generation.

It doesn't matter if it's the boomers speaking down on the X-ers or the X-ers making fun of millenials. I almost never hear anyone EVER say the words. "You know, we may have failed our children, WE could have done better!"

This is a complex and broad issue. I wouldn't dream of being able to sum up in a few pragraphs but I'd like to touch on what I think is a very important point.

People "in general" do not raise their children. Many children spend their entire lives being razed by a system, not raised by their parents.

●Birth of child. Parent, usually the mother stays home with the child for a few weeks or months then returns to work. Handing off the child to a daycare worker soon after.

●Child is old enough to attend a preschool where they spend 4-5 hours a day in an institution.

●Child then attends public school 7-8 hours per day. (These institutions were designed to indoctrinate obedience, not educate or enrich with knowledge) This has been the case for thousands of years reaching all the way back to ancient Sparta.

●Child is then old enough to participate in team sports, social clubs, or youth religious groups of some sort to be raised or razed by a coach, mentor, or religious leader of some sort, who may or may not represent your values, morals,or expectations.

●Child may or may not then attend a unversity where they continue to be influenced by sources other than parents or family members.

These things in and of themselves are not inherently evil, but the fact remains that parents more and more have abdicated their responsibility of child raising (razing) to institutions.

When I hear parents say "who taught them to act like this, I didn't raise them this way." They are right, in most cases they didn't raise them at all.

As a parent of two nearly adult daughters I can look back in retrospect about what I did right and wrong. There were many missed opportunities than cannot be reclaimed.

Let's be honest none of us really knew what we were signing up for when we had children.

So this is not some open letter of rebuke, but more of a reflection of what could have been and what we can hope will be in the future.

Ask you self as a parent are you really raising your children? Or simply providing their physical needs like food, shelter, and clothing?

Have you taught them to live a life of integrity, morality, and empathy?

Have you taught them to think critically, question all things, consider the consequences of their actions and accept responsibility for such?

Have you walked and talked with them, held them? Have you led them in these things by example?
Not just ordering them to do what is right while simultaneously living the opposite of what you dictate to them.

Until we as parents accept the stewardship we've been given when having children and raise them ourselves, we cannot reasonably complain when institutions raze them to reflect some golomized imitation of humanity.

Selah