Sunday, November 16, 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen!!! Let's get ready to.....

This afternoon we celebrated Emily's Birthday. She decided she wanted to have some friends and family over for dessert, then go hit a movie. I will throw some pictures on here soon for those that might want to see them.

Our family decided several years back that we would not address our children as teenagers. The whole idea of teenager, as we know it today, emerged in the 1940's as what was initially a marketing strategy to tie everyone together and to influence their tastes, purchases and behaviors.

Today, the stereotype of a teenager seems to connote a rude, rebellious young person that has no responsibilities, prefers spending time with anyone other than their family and is welcome to use their time to have as much fun as they can because they will have the rest of their life to take life serious.

At our house, we prefer the terms of young ladies and young men. This better communicates are expectations that are kids be respectful, responsible and reasonable. As the young men and women in our house are given more freedom, they will certainly make mistakes. Nonetheless, we will continue to have high expectations for them because our children are perfectly capable, with God's help, of living up to them.

Are other young people capable of this, or are ours the only ones?

3 comments:

agentpipes said...

thanks for the encouragement and admonishment.

Elanor Willow said...

Oh...so that's why

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