Linked: “The Kids are not Alright”

via Slate:

15% of college students now experience from chronic anxiety, self-mutilation is rampant, affecting 15% of all adolescents, and 40% of women in college will suffer from anorexia or bulimia, all in an attempt at exerting some form of control over their own lives. This same innate need to be their own person is a leading cause of over-drinking, which reduces the above anxiety and also requires little to no social skills; and that same lack of social skills and experience with relationship development leads to stalking and violence. 

I wasn’t sheltered as a kid but I certainly wasn’t socialized with peers. I kept to myself (staring at a book, laptop or iPod screen) and when school let out, I went to my dad’s gym and lifted, trained and taught martial arts with him. I wan’t invited to parties or events and didn’t care for sports of clubs so what he taught me was my only exposure to human interactions.

In short, he treated me like an adult, he and I were buddies until I screwed up then he was my father / sensei. He had to force me to play outside on some days but being mostly an only child (more on that another time), I was either studying books, surfing/hking, or in a gym working out until I moved to SF at 21 years old. So it’s fair to say articles like this do not make sense to me. Why do parents care that much to protect their kids from everything?

One of my memories toward my upbringing was Dad looked at me on our way to the Dojo one night and said, “you smell like horse shit. What did you get into today?” After a few minutes, he found out I hadn’t bathed in like 5 days. I was 9 years old and just didn’t really care. It was summertime, I was just going to get dirty again. “You gotta bath every 48 hours, no exceptions” and that’s that. He wasn’t a bad father, maybe by today’s standards he is but kids should be allowed to make their own decisions and through kid-activities, they build their muscles, mind, problem solving abilities and immune system. To deny kids of the fun in their life is to deny them of a balanced adult life.

The Slate article is worth a read if you’re planning on being a parent. At 28, I still have no desire to marry or have kids ever. People keep saying that’ll change when i get older.