The Right Article-Formatnewsletter-Format Article for Newsletter

You Are Here: Home Page » Formatnewsletter » Format Article for Newsletter

Newsletter Article

Here is Parenting Challenge: What's Wrong with Kids Today? formatted for a newsletter with 65 characters per line.

Return to Parenting Challenge: What's Wrong with Kids Today?

Parenting Challenge: What's Wrong with Kids Today?

by connie_allen

We seldom want to look at the statistics about suicide in
children and young people, but they are important to consider. As
parents and educators we tend to ignore this subject, pretending
it doesn't happen in "good" families. The belief is that suicide
happens only
in troubled families to troubled children.
 
At the ChildSpirit Conference I attended in November, Joseph
Chilton Pearce, author of numerous books including The Magical
Child, gave us a startling statistic. "Suicide is the third
leading cause of death among children and young people".  This
number includes only the young people who succeed, not those who
attempt and live.
 
He said this is unprecedented in the history of humankind. Never
before have we witnessed children ending their own life in such
numbers.*Additional figures from the American Academy of Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry: "Suicide is the third leading cause of
death for 15-to-24-year-olds, and the sixth leading cause of
death for 5-to-14-year-olds." 
 
These are shocking statistics! They cry out for us to wake and
to pay attention. Most of us never think of children ages 5 - 14
committing suicide.
 
Child and youth suicide is important because it is the tip of
the iceberg. What lies beneath the water's surface are all the
other expressions of emotional dis-ease in children. These
include ADD, teen's dropping out of school, over-weight children,
depression, anxiety, excessive time playing video games,
defiance, tantrums and emotional upsets.
 
The fact that suicide rates in young people are higher than they
have ever been in the human history indicates the pervasiveness
of the problem. It demands our attention, not because your child
will commit suicide some day, but because your child is being
raised in
the same emotional cultural stew.

In the last two months, I heard about the suicides of two men in
their early twenties that shocked their families and those who
knew them. Both men were highly successful and were leaders in
their field. To everyone around them, they appeared happy and to
be living full lives.

Yet something was seriously wrong with their internal experience
of themselves and of life. Reason tells us, suicide is not
something that is done lightly and for insignificant reasons. It
is an act of desperation, of seeing no other way. It is the
ultimate expression of profound loss, futility, failure,
powerlessness, hopelessness, or anger.
 
Our culture tends to ignore emotional pain and discomfort. We
ask children to suppress their unhappy feelings and then place
extreme pressures on them to succeed and to meet society's and
our standards. We ask them to be someone other than who they are,
and then wonder why they do irrational, hurtful things.
 
We all love and enjoy the innocence and tenderness of young
children. We want them to keep it forever. This innocence and
tenderness is based on their emotional sensitivity, their
connection with their feelings and their awareness of the
feelings of others.
 
Acts of suicide and violence in children are cries for us to
wake up as individuals and as a society. What's wrong with young
people today? Nothing. Children are as loving, brilliant, and 
joyous as ever.

What's wrong with young people are their relationships with
important adults in their lives, their relationship with
themselves, traditional models of education and the emotional
environment in which they are being raised. When we ignore a
child's emotional wholeness, we do it at our peril.

In order for young people to flourish emotionally, they need
several things. They need safe relationships where they can be
who they are and where they can honestly talk about their needs,
desires and feelings.

They need internal strategies to handle the emotionally painful
times. They need people who believe in them always. They need a
strong, positive ground of being within themselves.
 
How can you give this to your child and to your students? Begin
today to pay attention to the emotional wholeness of your child.
Gain understanding and develop approaches that nurture his
positive experience of himself and of life. Give him the
nurturing and tools he needs for a joyous, fulfilling life.
 
Your child's emotional wholeness is the foundation for her life.
When her emotional wholeness is strong and clear, she can
accomplish so much and be fulfilled and happy as a person. This
is the most important gift you can give your child and your
students.
 
You lay an emotional foundation for your child, whether you are
aware of it or not. Every interaction with your child and every
experience she has in life creates the emotional environment in
which she develops.

These experiences help her build strong emotional resources or
they weaken her internal resilience and ability to flourish. This
is true whether your child is six weeks, 6 years or 16 years
old.
 
Commit today to making your child's emotional wholeness a
priority. Then watch what new things you discover and what
experiences occur in your child's life and in your own.

Connie Allen, M.A. of Joy with Children. Connie helps parents and
educators who are unsure how to best empower their child. . For
information on how you can nurture the joyous inner spirit of
children, subscribe to her free e-newsletter <a
href="http://www.joywithchildren.com"> "Joy with Children"</a>.
Visit her <a href="http://connieallen.typepad.com/joyousjourney
"> blog</a>.

Syndicated by The Right Article - www.therightarticle.com