Pee in your pants and we'll take care of it for you!

[snusgetter]

~
Are you raising a generation of nincompoops?
9/27/2010

NEW YORK — Second-graders who can't tie shoes or zip jackets. Four-year-olds in Pull-Ups diapers. Five-year-olds in strollers. Teens and preteens befuddled by can openers and ice-cube trays. College kids who've never done laundry, taken a bus alone or addressed an envelope.

Are we raising a generation of nincompoops? And do we have only ourselves to blame? Or are some of these things simply the result of kids growing up with push-button technology in an era when mechanical devices are gradually being replaced by electronics?

Susan Maushart, a mother of three, says her teenage daughter "literally does not know how to use a can opener. Most cans come with pull-tops these days. I see her reaching for a can that requires a can opener, and her shoulders slump and she goes for something else."

Teenagers are so accustomed to either throwing their clothes on the floor or hanging them on hooks that Maushart says her "kids actually struggle with the mechanics of a clothes hanger."

Many kids never learn to do ordinary household tasks. They have no chores. Take-out and drive-through meals have replaced home cooking. And busy families who can afford it often outsource house-cleaning and lawn care.

"It's so all laid out for them," said Maushart, author of the forthcoming book "The Winter of Our Disconnect," about her efforts to wean her family from its dependence on technology. "Having so much comfort and ease is what has led to this situation — the Velcro sneakers, the Pull-Ups generation. You can pee in your pants and we'll take care of it for you!"


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Are we raising a generation of nincompoops?
Not me!! But my neighbors sure are.
And there are all those idiots I have to deal with at social (dis)functions.
Sheesh, I get a headache just thinking about it.
Let's head out for Wendy's or Taco Bell; or maybe that greasy-spoon up the road.
The indigestion will help distract me!!
And so would a Guinness.

[Premium Parrots]

Well........Ms. Moosehart is an idiot for not teaching her kids properly.

[lxskllr]

My daughter has a P38 clipped into her lunchbox so she can open up cans when I send tuna to school :^D

I try to teach her stuff as I go, and I think she's doing pretty well :^)

[raptor]

It's a mix of gen-x parents who are pretty stupid to begin with along with the false belief that introducing technology at a young age is beneficial.

Hell, I experienced that myself when I took calculus in highschool. For any complex problem, everyone pulled out their symbolic logic calculator and 10 button presses later had the answer. Yet everyone had difficulty doing even the most basic calculus concepts by hand.

[CoderGuy]

Well........Ms. Moosehart is an idiot for not teaching her kids properly.

+1

Seriously she is complaining that her daughter doesn't know how to hang cloths or use a can opener? And it's technology's fault? I think the title of the article should have been, "Are our kids being raised by adult nincompoops?"

[raptor]

At least give her credit for realizing that her teachings and external environments like school were inadequate.

[Jwalker]

Well for most of these so what, I didn't know how to do laundry when I was 12, after one disaster I figured out you only want to use a little of the powdered cleaner, I figured out a can opener and bottle opener. Cooking was something else I learned pretty quickly too it's not hard to boil water, make cookies, make spaghetti, hamburger meat, etc. It takes what 1 minute to show even a dumb kid how to use a can opener.

[Snusdog]

Truth be told..................the reason this country is in big trouble has nothing to do with the deficit or the economy or the prevailing ideological leanings

Our country is screwed because the next generation of doctors, lawmakers, and visionaries..................cain't put a damn hamburger and fries into a paper sack without F****ing up the order.


800 miles of travel................ 6 different states..........8 meals on the road.............not one flippen order right..............and they call southerns stupid

[c.nash]

Roflmao. I guess I was raised pretty damn good then.

[Langdell]

Well for most of these so what, I didn't know how to do laundry when I was 12, after one disaster I figured out you only want to use a little of the powdered cleaner

I learned this fact as a very young lad, back in the olden days, from Brady Bunch reruns. (But it was not until much later, as an adult living in my own apartment, that I learned it is NOT O.K. to use liquid handwashing dish soap in the dishwasher if you run out of dishwasher detergent, at least not as much of it as I used.)

Seriously, though, this stuff about the up and coming generation floors me but does not surprise me. These kids today!!! (Then again, I guess I'd probably be hard pressed to milk a cow or mend a chicken coop, which are probably things my grandparents could do when they were kids.)

[raptor]

Kids these days have cellphones, video games and iPods to occupy their minds instead of critical thinking about what's taught in school.

[desirexe]

I'm relying on technological advances, robots and such to do all of the work and run this country then it won't matter if the upcoming gen are nincompoops. Speaking of the future, has anyone seen that movie "Idiocracy?" I thought it was so stupid when I saw it but there could be some truth to it...

[precious007]

It's all about education.

If there are kids that are purely not able to open a tuna fish can that doesn't mean all of them are the same.

Some parents are too busy these days to take care of their kids and completely forget about them. (Why raise kids then?)

[Owens187]

My six year old can tie her shoes. She knows how to use the microwave, can opener, and toaster. She can get herself ready for school, in nice matching clothes, hair done and all. And that includes working and setting her alarm clock. She can make herself a sandwich, reheat leftovers, etc. She just got skipped up in school, reading at level 30, the rest of her classmates are on level 5. She has an insane amount of common sense. She can fully work all six remotes of my very complicated home theater system, including loading and playing the Wii, PS3, DVD, and Blu-Ray players, and never damages the disks.

We don't just let her "raise herself" mind you. We are always nearby, but have always raised her to be independant, to be able to think and problem-solve on her own. I firmly believe this makes a child much more prepared for the world as she gets older. And most of these things she's been doing for a couple years now.

And since my wife and I are both in the medical field, she knows more about Human Anatomy and Microbiology than probably 75% of adults. She reads our medical books for fun!

[precious007]

She can fully work all six remotes of my very complicated home theater system ...

Kids do have a lot of patience and sometimes are smarter than adults simply because of that.

I know I have been that way too when I was a kid. Now I can hardly change my cell phone because I just can't be bothered to have to go through any new function, it's irritating at some point.