Raising iGen

Kids are soft these days. They lack resilience. They need to be more focused. Kids don't take any responsibility for themselves and their choices. They need to be more proactive and take charge of their lives. They all have ADHD. This endless list of complaints about all the things children and teens today are lacking, and how hard it makes parenting and teaching them makes me wonder when it all became the fault of the children. When did the adults relinquish all responsibility for how children are growing up these days? If there is a lack in their development, this falls squarely on the shoulders of the adults in their lives. This begs the question, what has gone wrong? What has gone wrong in our parenting and in our schools that has resulted in a rise in child and teen mental health issues? What are we failing to do for them to prepare them better for life? If there is such an immense and ever-growing mental health crisis amongst young people today, it says that something is wrong and not with the children themselves, but with how we are raising and educating them. What if we take a step back and take a long hard look at our education systems and parenting styles? And what if we try and understand children and emerging adults today and accept the fact that they are different, their own generation, with their own unique thoughts and values that don't fit into the mould left by previous generations? We can't truly establish social emotional education plans, curriculums and support programmes if we do not understand the children we are working with. While the mental health crisis grows amongst our teens and young adults, it is time to accept that we have spent way too long blaming everything and everyone else for this pressing issue. We are so busy putting out fires and sticking plasters on the emotional and developmental damage that our staid, narrow-minded approaches have caused. The only way to really fix the problem and to create a safe, happy, meaningful foundation for our teens and young adults is to approach them from a place of understanding, only then can we guide them to the point where they can flourish. How can we guide them towards their future if we are not even looking at the same map? While there are some tried and trusted approaches out there, that have worked for many years, I am not saying we need to throw them all out and return to the drawing board, I am saying let's look at them all through a new lens, take a new perspective and see what we can change to better suit teens and young adults today. We are trying to stick square pegs into round holes and expecting the pegs to change shape. Let's change the shape of the holes instead. We are failing to prepare them for their future lives because we don't understand them. When I sit and listen to parents and teachers lamenting all the many social emotional and developmental skills children today lack I honestly wonder how they can think children develop the skills they need and how they eventually become young adults if it is not for the role we play in this development. Meaningful change can only come from deep reflection and understanding. We need to make some serious changes to manage the ever-growing mental health crisis affecting our children and young adults today. It behooves us to support and guide this generation, as they are after all, our futures. And in order to do this, we need to approach them from a place of understanding- Who are Gen-Z and what makes them tick?