Emulating Adults

A couple of days ago, I was watching a TV program that featured a segment from what must have been the 1950s, a school documentary on how to throw a party.

It showed teenage girls discussing who to invite, party games to play, and how to behave in a well-mannered way. The party was hilariously dull and droll, with etiquette interruptions by the voice over.

And that's what shook me up. These 1950s teenagers were shown wearing nice dresses and suits. They played their games and ate their party food as well-mannered young adults. I imagine that the teenagers were shown this video at school in order to teach them good manners and non-venal behavior during boy/girl social mixing.

How accurate this was to real life in the 1950s is up for debate. The complete lack of early rock-n-roll or any music is a good indication that this "party" may not have completely been the norm.

But it was the ideal.

These kids were depicted emulating what was considered appropriate adult behavior. This is what the Baby Boomers revolted against, claiming decency was oppression.

Now, two generations later the closest thing one has to a video showing teens how to throw a party is some ghastly booty-call of a video with half-naked girls simulating fornication.

Thanks Baby Boomers. Thanks a effing lot.

I'm stuck raising my two children in the wreckage of your bad behavior, your inability to behave like a grown ups. You tore down the ideal because you were too lazy and spoiled to live up to it and now your children and your grandchildren are suffering.

My husband and I try to behave like the adult role models all parents should be (we fail at times, we are human) in the hopes that our children will emulate adults rather than overgrown and aging boomers. It's hard going but worth it if we can preserve our children's characters. For as Edmund Burke once said, "A loosening of morals leads to a hardening of hearts."