Are kids today more immature?

[Irish_Girl_68]

Hey, all. Just trying to get some thoughts on this…do any of you think kids today are more immature/less able to deal with adversity today than they were when you were kids? I ask because of a situation I saw…was at a junior varsity softball game last night. One girl blew a play in the outfield. Coach immediately called a time out after the run was scored, called the players to the circle and said to the player, “Get your *** down and start catching the ball!” He then pulled the player for the rest of the game." The player remained silent but threw her glove in the dugout (appeared more out of frustration than anything) and sulked on the bench. I was flabbergasted. Sure, I thought the coach was harsh but I didn’t think it called for a high-school girl pouting on the bench. I asked a friend who teaches HS about this same incident. Her response, “That’s no suprise. They’re all like that.” My question: Do you agree with that statement? If so, why and what do you think is responsible for our children’s lack of maturity? God bless.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

I taught high school about 17 years ago. The girls were easily offended and felt slighted for the smallest things.

 

[PatriceA]

If the coach is constantly swearing at the kids and being a jerk, then her reaction would be expected IMO.

I don’t think kids today are any different from the way a lot of adults act. So no I don’t think they are more immature. I think our society as a whole is spoiled and go about their lives with a sense of “entitlement” that didn’t exist even 10 years ago.

 

[PaulinVA]

This is more athletes than anything else, and her reaction was quite normal. Might not have been good, but I’ve seen it happen all the time. You can see it on TV in MLB as well.

In terms of pulling someone for one error - I doubt it was one error only. But, to expect a high school kid to run to the dugout, thank the coach for publicly humiliating her, and then get on the railing and cheer for her teammates is not realistic.

 

[kimmielittle]

Actually, I think every generation has accused the younger generation of this since time started

 

[Monte_RCMS]

In general, kids have been protected from the consequences of their actions.

AND, kids have been protected from reality.

Even simple things, such as the tyranny of math. 2+3=5

Self esteem, feelings and subjective approaches to math have no meaning. But harsh realities ARE there.

So people buy cars and houses that they cannot afford the payment on.

So, we have kids doing bungee jumping from bridges and getting hurt. Why are the kids so surprised?

Bad decisions produce bad results.

Someone called in to a radio station and even though we have a high water table, floods, and a surplus of water, we should ration water in solidarity with the people of Africa who don’t have enough water. When callers ridiculed the idea, the caller felt hurt.

I was listening to the radio and someone called in and said that recycling is good and because recycling is good, then the state should impose mandatory recycling regardless of the cost or the consequences.

[That happens to be a local issue that is hot at the moment.]

Other callers and an on-air-guest were saying that recycling isn’t ALWAYS good. The goodness of recycling DEPENDS on what the stuff gets used for and that depends on the current market price for the recycling stuff. Then someone called and said that the landfills need to be preserved and are polluting the environment.

The on-air-guest said old landfills were not designed at all; they were just dumps. New landfills are designed and don’t pollute. And that there is PLENTY of landfill capacity. And gave numbers and data.

But callers kept it up: recycling is good. [sounded like a religion]

Recycled stuff is actually costing money to dispose of because the state has to pay to have it carted away. Right now, there is no place to reuse the recycled stuff.

And, in my opinion, kids today are protected from the harsh realities of life.

Whether it is the math of recycling or the need to exercise care when thinking about doing stunts.

Kids need more information about consequences and they need to learn to do more things for themselves to learn about real life.

Real life isn’t like what you see on television.

 

[Lutheranteach]

Are kids more immature today? Yes. Absolutely. But they also know more, so it’s a dangerous combination. Combine this with the fact the majority of them are held less accountable than ever and you can see where there are issues. For a coach to act that way, I can almost be sure that the young woman has blown that play in practice and in more than one game and has the ability to make the play. The player didn’t like it because she was embarrassed in front of everyone. A good coach usually doesn’t use that tactic —*especially with girls — until he or she has used a lot of other coaching tricks. On the baseball team I coach I had a player tell me earlier in the week that there were ONLY two positions he would play and that’s just not going to happen. I run the team, not the players. So, he didn’t play at all. He sat the bench the entire game, and he’s a pretty good player when he wants to be. But I told him and his parents we’ll go 0-20 before players at the 8th grade level tell me where they are going to play. And I probably would have put him in one of the spots he had in mind it was the “I am only going to play…” attitude that got him benched. The great thing is the person I put in his spot played a fantastic game, so now there is a real fire under someone’s butt to get back on the field.

 

[Jay82]

Actually, I think every generation has accused the younger generation of this since time started

I agree. It is probably close to the same with each generation. Heck, I am in my late 20s and I get frustrated with the immaturity of other adults in their 20s.

 

[gh4]

Actually I think some of them are much more mature than my generation was! I think a lot depends on the parents and the schools and if the children have God in their lives.

As far as the original poster’s concerns, I think that’s a normal reaction, after all, that’s the same reaction we see from grown men in pro sports.

 

[js_192]

I think it depends on the type of environment they grew up in. Simple as that.

 

[gmarie21]

It depends on personalities. If my dad doesn’t get his way, he pouts, gives silent treatments (and not hour-long silent treatments, but days, weeks, months, and sometimes years long silent treatments). A perfect example, we are heading out by him in a few weeks for my brother’s graduation (which is a huge expense for us that we can barely afford, but my sanity is such that I need to get away with my family). I informed my dad last night that we would be staying in a hotel due to comfort and more importantly allergies (he has a big hairy dog and lives among the trees). He said, “Oh, okay”. 20 minutes later he called furious that we aren’t staying with him and wanted to know why (even though I had already told him in the previous conversation and in the other time I visited him). So he said “who has allergies?” I reminded him that I do as well as the rest of us (which, since I’ve suffered from them since birth, I thought he knew). He said “whatever” then said bye. I said, “I love you” he just hung up. He’s 31 years my elder, I could easily call him and say “forget about it, we’re not coming” but I’m going to play his game. Now, who was being immature? And this is a guy who was very strict and career military.

 

[purplesunshine]

The case you listed is a poor case. Her coach bad mouthed her and swears and she’s immature because she pouts?

This is a high-school girls game. A week from now there may be one person who remembers the game. WAY over the top on the coach’s part and that the girl didn’t have a hissy fit and hit him or rally the team to a walk-off is a credit to her maturity.

 

[flyingfish]

The immature person here is the coach, not the girl. Who talks like that to other human beings?

 

[gmarie21]

The immature person here is the coach, not the girl. Who talks like that to other human beings?

Too many to count unfortunately. And in forums like this, FB, or email exchanges, that number increases dramatically from the face-to-face numbers of people who talk like that to other humans.

 

[PatriceA]

Too many to count unfortunately. And in forums like this, FB, or email exchanges, that number increases dramatically from the face-to-face numbers of people who talk like that to other humans.

But in this situation, it was an employee in a school system swearing at a student. He can be fired for swearing at a student, a high school baseball coach was fired for doing just that in a local school district near me this past year.

 

[gmarie21]

But in this situation, it was an employee in a school system swearing at a student. He can be fired for swearing at a student, a high school baseball coach was fired for doing just that in a local school district near me this past year.

And here’s just one of many examples of immature adults every season for every sport it seems (but we also hear about parents putting themselves in the same position by their immaturity): myfoxmemphis.com/dpps/news/little-league-coach-karim-carter-arrested-dpgonc-20100423-fc_7207227

 

[Irish_Girl_68]

The immature person here is the coach, not the girl. Who talks like that to other human beings?

In reality, a lot of coaches do, particularly at the high school level and particularly if they have a tradition of success. As a former HS athlete myself, I can attest to coaches coming absolutely unglued in the locker room or at the bench towards players. I don’t think it’s right. I personally think it’s demeaning and not particularly helpful towards motivating a player or correcting a performance issue. But, it happens. As to my original post, it wasn’t that the player was upset per se…anyone would be. No one likes to be humiliated. My point was more how she handled herself. Pouting (regardless of why you’re pouting) when you’re 16 or 17 just strikes me as incredibly immature. I’m nearly 50 now, so perhaps I’ve just forgotten, but I truly can’t recall anyone I played with in HS who would have behaved that way. Yes, you would have been embarrassed, but you’d have sucked it up and not exacerbated your embarrassment by drawing further attention to yourself. But, along with everyone else, yes, I do think the coach was a jerk about it.

 

[flyingfish]

In reality, a lot of coaches do, particularly at the high school level and particularly if they have a tradition of success. As a former HS athlete myself, I can attest to coaches coming absolutely unglued in the locker room or at the bench towards players. I don’t think it’s right. I personally think it’s demeaning and not particularly helpful towards motivating a player or correcting a performance issue. But, it happens. As to my original post, it wasn’t that the player was upset per se…anyone would be. No one likes to be humiliated. My point was more how she handled herself. Pouting (regardless of why you’re pouting) when you’re 16 or 17 just strikes me as incredibly immature. I’m nearly 50 now, so perhaps I’ve just forgotten, but I truly can’t recall anyone I played with in HS who would have behaved that way. Yes, you would have been embarrassed, but you’d have sucked it up and not exacerbated your embarrassment by drawing further attention to yourself. But, along with everyone else, yes, I do think the coach was a jerk about it.

I don’t know. My philosophy about life is not to take that kind of stuff from people. I don’t believe in being meek and taking it. If someone oversteps their boundaries with me, I generally make sure to push back hard enough that they will know to never go there with me again.

Personally I think pouting is a better stance toward life than sitting there and taking it. It’s on its way there to being able to stand up for oneself because at the very least it acknowledges that a wrong has been done to you and that it’s not okay. Pretending things are okay when they’re not is weak in my opinion, and will lead to a person allowing others to mistreat them.

The coach behaved like a drunk guy in a bar, not a professional educator of young people.

 

[Teresa_Lee]

As unique as the individual person is, experiencing so many different things in different ways, I’d have to say that’s a tough question to answer.

A few years ago, computer technology was non-existent. Kids of today live a completely different life than kids in the past.

A few decades ago, faith was a given. People struggled with it, sure. But they didn’t abandon it nearly as easily as they do today. Somewhere along the line, it turned into a choice, just like giving birth. Kids these days are growing up with mixed messages about way too many things.

The grass is only a different shade of green, but not any better, when it comes to kids these days. They aren’t necessarily more or less mature. They simply live in a completely different environment than years ago.

Teresa
I’d love to get more feedback on my Catholic Catechism blog, please. Thank you

 

[plinko]

I actually watched a 60 minutes episode on this very question a while back. I don’t remember everything about it, but the episode (as I recall) was just a bunch of baby boomers complaining that millenials (the newest working generation) are lazy and feel entitled. I remember not agreeing with a lot of things and then nodding my head at others. I mean, maybe we are more immature, but who made us that way? Who forced us to watch Barney on Saturday mornings, where a giant purple dinosaur told us that we were special and could do anything? Who freaked out and started spraying neosporin on our knees when we had a slight tumble or told us we didn’t have to do the chores “as long as we were doing our homework”? Who bought us cars, paid for our college education, let us move back home after graduation? I’m not saying let’s put all the blame on the parents, but I really think if people want to accuse my generation of not being as “adult” as ones in the past, we need to also think of the causes so that maybe the next generation will be better.

Here’s the first half of the episode if anyone’s interested youtube.com/watch?v=p5IfsNqJcmA