Are we handicapping our kids by doing to much for them?

Am I the only person who thinks the younger people who are growing up in this digital age are totally clueless when it comes to practical skills?   Remember in the past we talked book smart vs. street smart or plain old common sense. We, as the older generation learned how to use the web, blog, web design and scramble our brains to keep up.  My crystal ball tells me there will be more how-to searches on How to Use a Hammer, How to Change a Light Bulb, How to Change a Tire and "The Top 10 Things to Do During An Internet Outage.

A shelf fell in the kitchen and I watched one of these digital wizards struggle to figure out how to fix it and save the dishes that were falling.  After a couple clicks and no success  came a desperate shift alt delete and reset. Meaning, gave up and walked away leaving it for tech support to fix.  I love the "on your fingertips" instantaneous of information we have today, but I like the process of thinking and solving the problem and the hands-on process of fixing my cabinet or putting a table together. 

Have we as parents done so much for our kids that we have not let them grow and in all areas of life?  We need to do a better job of making sure our kids become more self reliant so they do not depend on wipe there noses at 25.

What is missing is the desire to see a problem and find a solution.   I never fault anyone for not knowing how or the answer but I do expect you to try before you ask me.  I laughed to myself when I had to explain how to use a cassette player. Not to record a tape but to play a cassette.   Not one student thought to try to figure it out before asking me how to play the cassette?  Come on people a 4 year-old would have tried to stick the cassette somewhere in the player. 

There are so many advantages to this digital coming of age but it is up to us a parents and adults to make sure we are teaching the practical things that will help them to use their greatest resource - their minds.
 

What now

When are we going to learn if we do not product anything we can not prosper. It really does not matter how many jobs a company creates if they decide to outsource it what can we do? Not all of us were cut out to be in the health care industry.

Go back to school. Ok so I know a few people who did go to school in the healthcare field and now they have more debt and no job in an industry that is supposed to be recession proof. Well when people who are suffering enough from the no job, no money and flat broke end up at the hospitals and depending on state aid to survive then we will have jobs for people who will be there to take care of them. We will be a country of service workers and producer of nothing.

Who has found creative ways to survive this up and down economy? Come on we are creative Americans lets put our heads together and ............... oh wait I ran out of gas this week for my 11 year old car. How have you handled the bills that come in and you have nothing to pay it with. No one is coming to your door with a solution or even how to get by and or show you have to wait it out until 2012 when the economy turns around.

Ok seriously just let them come get the blood out of this turnip.

Blogger test

Who wants to listen to the rants and raves of crazy person? As I read other bogs I thought wow my crazy is nowhere near the crazy of Internet. Got to love the net yall.

In this politically charged world we are in we have become so closed-minded to any idea that is not our own that we can no longer have discussions without it turning into a name calling frenzy. It is a sad day when in the land of free speech the only speech that matters is mine and not yours.
Maybe the economy is causing the crazies to come out since speaking is free and won't cost you anything so people talk and write endlessly. Not only have some points been beaten to death but they get revived beaten again.

We used to be a country of solutions. Does anyone have any solutions that affect the whole and not a limited number of people? Have we gotten so far away from you are my neighbor to this “us vs. them” mentality?