Parenting techniques are typically shown through the actions of their child. Whether they are disrespectful, understanding, religious, hateful, or accepting. Children learn from their parents and it’s nearly unpreventable. There will always be misbehaved children, but right now society is overwhelmed. People are noticing a spike in kids who simply do not want to listen, and do not have the desire for a typical lively childhood. The first wave of people to recognize this behavior was people in the school system. Teachers and workers in schools have been coming forward on social media to share their experiences with children misbehaving. Some educators have even decided to leave teaching behind because the pay is not enough for the situations they deal with almost daily. Now schools are suffering from a teacher shortage crisis. 

Children at the age of 11 and under have been raised by electronics. An iPad has been thrown in front of nearly every child’s face instead of being shown the backyard or a new play set. Kids at the age of four are being subjected to the internet and it isn’t even their fault. New parents are just giving their kids electronics because it’s easy, but we are finally seeing how this going to affect the kids later down the road. Having an imagination is a part of growing up, being so bored that you create your own imaginative game. Whether that’s going into the backyard to run around or making toys from different universes converse. Now kids are so overstimulated that they start to grow up faster, looking for the next best thing over and over again, consuming as much social media as possible. 

This is to blame partially on the parents. Development in children’s brains is being tarnished by a screen. Parents aren’t parenting, Cocomelon, TikTok, and YouTube are. They are not setting down boundaries with screen time, but using it as a gateway of self freedom that will eventually backfire. Obviously, everyone in the past 40 years has grown up with TV, movies, shows, and games. Most people have not grown up being in a secluded room for hours at a time, consuming so much unfiltered internet they will kick and scream if it’s ripped out of their clutch for even a second. According to Akron Children’s, that is the root of behavioral issues, causing a surge of addiction at young ages. 

There’s a gentle parent, and then there’s a “gentle” parent. Millennials have created a parenting strategy that they claim is gentle and will build a stronger relationship with them and their child. If a stronger relationship means let my kid walk all over me and act like a brat then they are truly succeeding. You should be gentle with a child of course, but that does not mean punishment is abuse. If your child does something bad it needs to be corrected, and if it’s not being corrected further measures need to be ensured. In a recent article, I wrote about young children damaging their skin with products and being rude to the workers in Sephora directing them elsewhere that would be more age appropriate. Parents have not been stepping up. Letting their own children bully them into submission with demands of products they don’t even need because it’s easier than saying no. 

Sadly, the power of the internet will only grow stronger as will technology. Just now we are starting to see the long-term effects it has on impressionable children and workers in the educational field. Hopefully future parents will see these signs and take them into consideration when starting to raise a family of their own.