The well-parented author during a Christmas celebration.
The well-parented author during a Christmas celebration.

Dear young Millennial parents,

A short time ago, I voiced my concern about the style of worship I was encountering in otherwise evangelical Christian circles.  Immediately, I was chastised by a young Christian for criticizing other Christians’ styles of worship.  “We are to be kind and mind our own business,” is a paraphrase of what she had to say.  Love, in her definition was accepting others with open arms no matter what their errors may be because who is to say who is in error and who is not if we are all believers.

Sadly, we have taken our dose of Christian Soma, and we should be nice, never disagreeable.  We are to hug the money changers as they come in the temple, and live in a world where above all, we do not think.

What do we do now?  Is every generation of our Brave New World doomed to speak in sound bites, afraid to be disagreeable in case someone be offended?

While I’m pessimistic overall, I do see a glimmer of hope in some of you Millennial parents.  I wonder if seeing your own lives, you are anxious to not produce the same environment that created the problems you face today.  Many of you want to chuck the parenting styles we “experts” espoused for over a generation.  Here’s what I’m hearing:

  • Many young adult parents are recognizing that their children must fail. They are waking up that the biggest abuse done to them by their parents (and still be done by Gen X parents) is over-parenting and protectiveness.  More secure than my generation was/is, they don’t need to live through their own children.  They have their own lives.
  • Many young adult parents are growing up. They aren’t living in their parents’ basements.  I doubt you will find them at age 45 trying to fit into jeans at Forever 21.
  • Many young adult parents are recognizing that the grades don’t matter as much as what’s learned. They are making commitments to not do science projects for their students, and allow their student to make their own decisions and advocate for themselves.  Many of their students are young at this point.  I pray they keep to this decision.
  • Many young adult parents are recognizing that loving one another does not mean opening one’s arms and hearts to all beliefs. Arguing can be done with kindness.  In fact, debate must happen if we are ever to become a thinking culture again.  Christian love involves knowing when to fight and for what to fight.
  • Many young adult parents are recognizing that technology is merely a tool. It is not (or at least should not be) a lifestyle, a major pillar of education, or the root of a worldview.  It is a tool.  Nothing more, nothing less.
  • Most importantly, many young adult parents are recognizing that it is not all about them. Or their kids. Or whatever the government is willing to give them.

I have to be optimistic with you.  Wake up, and redirect from being the lowest generation of modern times.  Leave that to Generation X.  We mastered it.

With warmest regards and deepest regrets,

A Member of Generation X