I am deviating from my usual column “What’s Up, Doc” because I am seeing a very disturbing, unintended trend in parent behavior.

 

You, as a parent, work hard to stay informed in order to educate your children. You want to be sure they are aware of facts that are needed to make good safety and moral decisions. Of course this varies for each age. The four-year-old needs less and different information than a high schooler. Too often the preschooler is flooded with material that they do not understand. Or they are saturated with visual stimuli in the news or information sources that literally terrify them. This only sets them up for hopelessness and depression.

 

The preteen and teens can find themselves in the same situation if they, too, are saturated with morbid or threatening news. In the same breath we must inform them so that they can make sound decisions.

 

A good example of this is the topic of Global Warming. Let me say, the climate of our planet is getting warmer. And we must not pollute our Earth, our “space craft” so that will make our environment hostile to our existence. But we should not let our children feel that it is an inevitable, desperate situation. There is no question, in the past we had an Ice Age. But it reversed itself with an obvious warming trend before the Earth was uninhabitable because of progressive glacier formations.
 

We must give our children the hope that reversal of the current situation can be accomplished by our measure of environmental change and the Earth’s intrinsic change. Let me repeat; give your children, teens and young adults the understanding that it is not hopeless if we cooperate with the powers of nature.

Man’s history is one of reaction, unfortunately not pro-action. Ultimately society wakes up in time and reacts appropriately. Please let your offspring know this. Talk to them. Do not leave the only source of their information to TV news and social media. Let them know “It’s always darkest before the dawn” and there has always been a “dawn”. As parents we must not be an ostrich and stick our head in the sand. But we cannot be a Chicken Little and run around screaming “The sky is falling”.
 

It is a fine line but a necessary one. Remember, nobody said parenting is easy. But everyone knows good parenting is crucial for the survival of mankind. As I said, calmly inform. Do not terrify and create a hopeless generation.