Transcripts


 

December 26, 2006:
Are We Raising Un-Resourceful Kids?
Interview with Brad Smart, author of Smart Parenting
www.asksmartparenting.com


Mike Carruthers:
Kids today are different because parents are different, and the result is often kids who lack resourcefulness.

Brad Smart:

Prior to WWII, every generation in the history of the world had to be resourceful, they had to do it to survive - they had to figure out how to get food, how to avoid the mountain lions and so forth.

Dr. Brad Smart, co-author of the book Smart Parenting

A whole generation came back from WWII with dads who had fought the war and they didn't want their kids to have to go through so much pain. And we have that same sort of phenomenon today - well meaning-parents, loving parents who don't want their kids to have to struggle so much. So we tend to give them too much stuff, which spoils their motivation and we make too many decisions for them. And what we're doing is destroying the most important of all skills, which is resourcefulness, and Osama Bin Laden couldn't be happier to see a whole generation of kids who are passive, helpless and dependent.

Even back in the 60's and 70's, kids were allowed more freedom to develop their resourcefulness than kids are allowed today.

Their parents said, "Hey, go take care of yourself, come in for dinner." And they had a whole lot of freedom and they had to figure things out, and there were some times, some kids got into accidents and so forth and that could have been prevented. But, the other extreme, over-protect kids so they cannot fall off a swing in a playground because there are no more swings. We're becoming so sanitized and robotic that kids don't have an opportunity to succeed.

Tomorrow, what happens to these un-resourceful kids when they grow up - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.

 
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