Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A Father's Lament

Good post...

A few thoughts.

First, on s purely selfish and practical level, the current dismal state of young people in America makes it easy pickings for a hard working kid with some genetic gifts of smarts... which I presume Mrs. 4ager has passed along.

Second, sports. Get your kids in sports guys. Start early, keep them engaged. Good for the body, but just as importantly, it's perhaps the one remaining meritocracy left for them to experience. Yeah, it's sometimes watered down- the merit aspect- but the kids know what's up. And by high school all the BS "participation" stuff is gone and it's all about hard work and effort. Do what it takes to keep them in sports. My youngest didn't like basketball (the horror!) so I bribed her a dollar a point and got her grandparents to match.... that's $3/point... That SPEAKS to a high school kid! She made varsity as a sophomore and was Defensive MVP of her team this year and 2nd-team all league.

Third, and to continue the above line of thought, fight dirty. Don't get hung up on purist ideals. Sure, you'd like your kids to be self-motivated and focused (talking middle school/high school now) for grades, but they may not be, or might have stages where they are tending to lose focus. One bad term screws up their GPA... So bribe the little [bleep]. I paid $20 an "A" with a $100 bonus for straight A's and a dollar per hundredth of a GPA point over a 4.0. Is it philosophically pure? Aww hell no! Did it work? Yep! Youngest graduates in a month as salutatorian with a 4.28 GPA (valedictorian has a 4.29) achieved while also earning 11 varsity letters.

I'm not so sure that creeping socialism per se is the real problem. More and more people is, as is the onslaught of what I shall summarize as "Twitter mind". When I was a kid we ran around the desert shooting stuff or tearing things up on dirt bikes or whatever. Kids now are inside the house, playing games, usually with multiple screens going. It's SO FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT from our "mindset" (literally) as children in the 60's and 70's that its unfathomable to me what the ramifications will be... but they WILL be.

Finally, not to be underestimated as a factor is that we've been living the luxury of cheap, available energy. That will change, just a question of when. The end of the Petro Era will knock some sense back into people in general, but it's gonna be flat ugly, and it would've been better not to lose that sense in the first place.

Exactly right. When I turned 18 dad told me, 'Your turn' and I've paid my way for the entirety of my life.

Parent's need to teach the skills, not pay for the 'shiet'.


I find it embarrassing how many adults that have parents still paying for crap. Hell, how many adults that are living with their parents.

Here's a hint, the ONLY reason an adult should live with their parents is to take care of them in their old age/sickness.

Actually, life doesn't suck at all. Life is pretty damned good, and the only reason it ain't better is because I just don't realize how damned good it really is.

However, none of that changes the fact that we (collective we as addressed in the OP) are leaving our kids and their kids a very f'ked up world; one that we (again, collective we) f'ked up. That's not what should have been done, and damned sure not what posterity deserves.

And, yep, everyone dies.