Our Kids are Not Ok…
Oh… The irony in this life. “Our Kids are Not Ok.” This is a title of a YouTube video I saw as “I was distracting myself from the ‘real world’ and avoiding things I SHOULD have been doing.” It is true. Our kids REALLY are NOT ok… Recently, I have been working closely with several young people who are not feeling great about themselves and the world in which they are living. Things are tough… and they are getting tougher.
What I have noticed is this. As the world does what it does (none of us really have too much control over what the world actually does in any real sense) more and more of us are choosing to “distract” ourselves (YouTube, Instagram, Candy Crush… or whatever the latest game might be). The problems with this are too numerous to list here, but the one that most concerns me is we are also “distracting” ourselves from our kids.
Every kid in this world NEEDS attention! Every kid in this world DESERVES love. Every kid in this world will SEEK OUT recognition. If our kids don’t receive these things from us, who and what are providing these things? Our kids are not ok… but are we actually paying attention?
It’s scary to realize that kids will seek out that recognition from somewhere…and that somewhere could end up being a negative or harmful influence. It IS so easy for parents to be distracted. This is a good reminder for me to connect deeply with my kids in multiple ways each and every day. Thank you.
Yea, I think in the world today it takes MUCH MORE focus and concentrated energy to ACTUALLY pay attention to the kids in our lives than it does to “tune out” and be distracted. This is scary… and important… and I am NOT SO CERTAIN we are heading in the right direction…