A couple of months ago, to ring in the new year, I wrote an article pertaining to how we cater and overprotect our children more these days than in the past called Can Anyone Tell Me Where The Bus Stop Is? Www.whereisthebusstop.blogspot.com As it was received very well by readers, I was happy to learn that I was not the only one who recognized and was concerned by this phenomenon. Even my cousin commented "If we did what our parents did, we'd be arrested.". I couldn't agree more with that statement. Although it seems exaggerated and may sound like a one line summation at a family get together in order to receive a laugh or agreeing nod, it's also the sad truth. By the way, thanks for reading and your input, Carrie. We have to ask ourselves, what changed? Why do we as adults go to such extremes? Not only with our children but with how we interact with society from the way we regard each other to the way we come up with new terms in order to label everything in a non-offensive way. I think we may be able to trace a lot of these over reactions back to a movement that started about 40 years ago. Unfortunately some of these practices are not as benign as others as we apply certain ideals to our lives.
No matter what name you assign it, self-worth, self-regard, self-esteem, etc. etc. etc.... my generation was the first one exposed to this way of thinking and our parents had to raise us while the worlds view of child rearing was changing every day. We are now starting to realize the results of the execution of that mentality as the children of the "self" movement are now the parents. Although some of us from the generation prior to X took the ideal for what it was meant to initiate... simply, to accept yourself for who you are, many drove right past that life road sign on the secondary road of reality and lead footed it to the interstate of entitlement and self-importance. What's worse is, as I stated earlier, they are the parents now and are teaching their children their delusional version of their interpretation of a simple concept gone awry. One has to wonder, my fellow Observers, how these children will decipher what their parents are teaching them and how the ideal will evolve when they become adults.
It seems we are already seeing the effects of the self-regard powered road trip that these people are on. At an annual Easter egg hunt this past Saturday in Orange Connecticut at the Pez headquarters field, adults disregarded the instructions of the Pez staff and rules of the event by rushing the field to grab their share of over 9000 eggs. Trouble is, as with all egg hunts that I've ever attended or heard of, this event was for children ages 1-12. Described by witnesses as "Worse than being at Walmart on Black Friday", at the event, which attracted over 1000 attendees, the "grown-ups" were also seen pushing children and stealing their baskets as well as assaulting each other. Seeing as these self-important morons were responsible for pushing 2 year olds into the mud, blooding 4 year old noses, taking candy from babies and breaking their baskets, they didn't shove each other hard enough for my taste.
Critics of the event on social media and interviewed by the local news actually called out Pez for not having enough staff members to control the event and cited that Pez didn't take children's safety into consideration. I can hear the shysters storming the clerks office to file lawsuits already. Far be it from me to point out to these cretins that an Easter egg hunt does not merit posting snipers every 20 feet to keep the crowd behind the pastel painted starting line. What exactly were they expecting? State police and SWAT teams in full riot gear? Yeah, that sight would prompt me to get my daughters stuffed bunny basket out of the trunk, give it to her and walk hand in hand towards the teargas guns and body shields to have some holiday fun.
Another thing I don't understand is when the first of these Milky Way mooks who couldn't keep their egg hunting excitement in their Pez dispensing pants and ran out onto the field to snatch up all the Skittles and Snickers, why did so many others follow suit? Couldn't the rest of the adults restrain themselves? It was an egg hunt....a kiddie event.... for candy.... it's not like they were handing out a key to a new car. Even a monetary or large prize event wouldn't excuse the actions of these poor excuses for what passes as parents these days as far as I'm concerned. That's the problem with herd animals. One takes off and the rest think it's a good idea to follow. I only wish that this particular stampede of simpletons took place a little closer to a cliff. It would have made their children's lives a lot easier not having them around to pass on their stupidity to our posterity. As with any stampede it can be difficult determining exactly which bovine started it. In this case though something is telling me that one might want to look hard at the attention hounds mugging at the news cameras that were swarming around in the aftermath. But I could be wrong..... Why not hang around after an egg hunting mob just trampled your 5 year old to talk to the press? We can get Johnny to the ER anytime.
As much as it probably won't surprise you, my loyal reader, the Pez egg blitz wasn't the first of it's kind and as history has a nasty habit of repeating itself, it probably won't be the last. Last year, in Sacramento California, at an attempted record breaking egg hunting charity event for Blue Heart, an organization that raises money for human trafficking victims, parents and children rushed the field to get their share of over 510,000 eggs before event staff officially started the hunt. Reports of injuries and trampling from adults pushing each other and children flooded the internet and news broadcasts. The event was labeled "Chaotic" and "A disgraceful display".
In 2010 at "The Great Easter Egg Hunt" in Ocean City New Jersey, 20,000 people attended the event that quickly became a parent's worst nightmare when adults, not heeding the rules to keep parents out of the age regulated hunting circles, rushed in with the children causing the parents that did follow direction to almost instantly lose sight of their children. What was even worse than that horror is the fact that young children were reported being left unattended for as long as twenty minutes during the fray by parents trying to get one of the 4000 monetary prizes hidden in over 100,000 eggs.
On the same day as the Pez horde, at an overbooked Easter egg hunt in Proctor Vermont , police responded to a report of irate parents at the 1200 attended event. One parent turned his frustration toward police , threatening them and taking off on foot. Being subdued with pepper spray, Michael Cuthbertson was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. That must have been a fun Easter Sunday dinner after bailing Daddy out of the pokey.
These are just a few examples of what I believe is the end result of people taking their self-esteem ideal too far by going from self-worth to better-than those around them. They hold themselves in higher regard and forget the basic principle of self-esteem is accepting yourself in order to be able to accept others. You can put yourself first if you want, but you must acknowledge that others exist in your world and they deserve your recognition just as much as you think your ego does. The late George Carlin pointed out, in his final performance, that studies have repeatedly shown that self-esteem does not improve social skills, does not improve academic achievement or career advancement and does not reduce incidents of violence or aggression. The fact is that violent, aggressive people think very well of themselves. I'll quote Mr. Carlin in writing, "Imagine that.... sociopaths have high self-esteem... who would have thought, huh?".
What we seem to have forgotten in the evaluation of our self-value is that the world owes us nothing. Not only is that notion being dismissed by self-esteem junkies hooked on entitlement, it is not being taught to our children. Young adults, as well as middle aged ones, have somehow come to expect life's necessities being handed to them on a silver "You deserve this" platter. To those you may know like this or to those who are nodding their head in agreement with that way of thinking, let me tell you something.... You deserve nothing but what you earn. From a home, a car, an advanced education, a job and a meal to a night out, a beer or a pack of smokes. It all needs to be earned.... not given.... earned. If your version of self-regard has led you to the land of Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!!!, it's time to reassess your life's philosophy to include such outrageous ideas as self-supporting, self-dependence and self-control. Even if the only thing you desire is a hidden colored egg. Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, I have to put away the Easter decorations.
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