The "Over" Generation

By Douglas V. Gibbs

For generations we have looked back on past generations to learn from them, and they looked upon the future generations hoping for them to do better than the past.  Each generation held hope and promise for their posterity.  Each generation did what it could to ensure the blessings of liberty for themselves, and their posterity.

We've had the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, Generation X, The ME Generation, and the Millenials.  Now, we have the "Over" Generation.  They are over-sensitive, over-careful, over-delicate, over-terrified, over-protected, over-coddled, over-dependent, over-safe, and are allowing the liberal left to put one "over" on them.

And if this keeps going, it will all be over.

So how did we get here?  How did we turn America into an overly sensitive nation of wussies?

Ultimately, it turns out that it is our own damn fault.

We treat our children with, pardon the expression, "kid gloves."  They are delicate glass orbs to us, beautiful and important, but must be protected from anything and everything so that they don't break. . . which is where the problem lies.

In our attempt to protect our children, our shields have become the daggers with which we use to kill their future.  So afraid to doom them to depression, we sentence them to heartbreak, anxiety, and the inability to handle the rigors of life.  Overprotection has left us with young adults unable to protect themselves, and their fragile emotions and unbroken psyches can't handle reality.

As a writer, I understand the drill all too well.  A person's written work is precious to them, and when a reader criticizes it, immediately the writer goes on the defensive.  The ability to grow a thick skin comes when the criticisms get dreadful, and become numerous.  Through it all, it makes us better writers, and better able to handle criticism.  To shield a writer from that kind of torture is to lie to them about the quality of their work, and to set them up for real heartbreak when reality slams into their fragile egos.

Our children live in fear.  They can't ride a bike without a helmet because their heads will explode, they are afraid of a van pulling up and some stranger whisking them away, and they are shielded from being sad or depressed so that their happy little lives can never feel the pain of whatever may come their way. . . and then reality comes their way.  Ill-equipped, we have young people committing suicide because they are bullied, and anxiety attacks crippling them when life requires them to step up to the plate during trying moments.

Let them fall off their bikes, face bullies and be beat up, and let them hear sad tales and scary nursery rhymes about a broken Humpty Dumpty and big bad wolves.  Mark their papers with red pen, and if they deserve an "F", give it to them.  Life has consequences, and consequences can be painful. . . but it is those consequences from which we learn.  Storms give us sea legs.  Bullies teach us to defend ourselves.  Criticisms enable us to strive to be better.  Life is harsh, life is imperfect, and life is not fair.  Toughen up and handle it.  One does not learn to succeed until they learn to fail.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary