TELL A LIE LONG ENOUGH, AND...

Tell a lie long enough, and…
(By: Pat Ciser)

“It becomes the truth.” One such lie is that our kids today have it harder than we did. Think about it; does anyone believe that, except for the kids?  I’m a Baby Boomer. Anyone born after WWII from 1945-1965 are “Boomers.” Millions who served in the military, and those who worked extremely hard here at home in support of the war effort, felt incredible relief and exhilaration that peace had finally been achieved in Europe, and later in the Pacific over Japan in 1945. The celebrations and optimism for a wonderful life were at an all-time high! Try, just for a moment, to envision their lives throughout the Great Depression and World War II.  Many remained taciturn over the years while keeping some of the horrors that they witnessed and experienced deep inside. Today, we have movies like “Saving Private Ryan” and the series, “Band of Brothers” to get a glimpse into events that were sometimes hard to understand and fully appreciate by those who never lived it. So as a result of America’s economy doing so much better after the war, with The New Deal, and the housing boom, Americans finally had hope for a better future, got married and started a family. The suburbs were born and quickly expanded. But think about what they all had to endure to get here.

When I was young, and many from my generation can relate to this, I started working at anything I could at age 13. I would walk the neighborhood raking neighbors leaves for a couple of bucks in the fall and shoveling out driveways in the winter. At 14 I got a paper route and delivered newspapers for the Herald News in addition to my seasonal work. NOBODY I knew had a landscaper, or even a snow plow; only rich people did.  Most parents back then didn’t have two incomes, as our mothers were usually housewives who took care of the home and children. With six kids in my family, my father worked seven days a week and also a couple of evenings. We were poor by today’s standards, but we didn’t really know it. I never in my life had a new bicycle, for instance. At age 16, I got a job at the local Foodtown. This was great for me as I wanted to start saving money for a car one day. We all worked hard, went to school, put up with all the bullshit peer pressure like today, and had an occasional fist fight behind the school building. Many of us were also accustomed to getting a beating from our fathers when we did something wrong. Millennials by contrast got “time outs” when they screwed up. Teenagers today get cyber bullied, which is certainly a problem, but don’t have to worry as much as my generation did about “actual” bullying, and getting jumped after school.

Think of all of the inventions developed over the years since 1945 that made our lives so much easier. I remember my mother hanging our clothes on the backyard line to dry and then of course, she’d then have to iron most of them later. A dishwasher? What’s that? We had homework AND chores to do all week long. More and more women entered the work force in the ‘60s and ‘70s, giving many families two incomes. Baby Boomers would say, generally, my kids are not going to do without, like I had to. The demand for toys was so high that stores like “Toys R Us” started to pop up. Our kids would get brand new bicycles and anything else we could afford. People began taking their kids on wonderful vacations, including Disneyworld. I never flew on a plane until I had enough money to do so. Today in the suburbs it’s fairly common that parents buy, whether new or used, their kids’ first car for them.  I could go on and on about how much we spoiled entire generations … and yes, we even lied to them in an effort to show empathy for their, according to them, extremely tough lives. But at what cost? Don’t coddle your kids; you’re not doing them any favors. Push them to try, fail, and then try harder rather than feel sorry for themselves.

Note: This article reflects my observations of mostly middle-class America today of all races. Poor people don’t have it as good as our middle class, but still have more today than poor people had in the 1960s. TEACH STRENGTH and personal responsibility, you’ll be glad you did!