Green Eggs and Crack Cocaine

One of the most interesting facts that I heard while in Orlando at the National Speakers Association convention was that the majority of millionaires in the United States are first generation immigrants. Then, this past weekend, I got into a discussion about how bad the drug problem is in the area where I grew up. I went to high school in a pretty small, sheltered town where alcohol was aplenty and pot wasn’t hard to find. These days, heroin, cocaine, and crystal meth are regular acquaintances of a growing number of average, everyday high school students. It’s a trend that I know is not exclusive to the small slice of Illinois that I once called home.

I don’t know if I should label it sad, tragic, pathetic, or cause for panic about the direction of our country but here’s the deal: America is still the land of opportunity. If it wasn’t, our shared border with Mexico would be a non-issue. People come from all over the world to pursue their dreams and take advantages of the opportunities Uncle Sam has to offer. And yet in spite of tremendous advantages, millions of American kids are either destroying themselves with drugs or complaining about how life isn’t doling out what they deserve. (Oh no… I sound like a grumpy grown-up now, don’t I?!)

Of course there are several reasons for this phenomenon, but I’d like to focus on parents for a second. In an article entitled “The price of privilege: A generation of stressed-out kids“, Rick Polito examines the struggles of children of rich parents:

In “The Price of Privilege,” (Madeline) Levine writes about kids whose overachieving parents begin to see their children as achievements. Their lives are supposed to be perfect and so are their kids.

“You can’t really talk about the kids without talking about the parents,” she says. The parents are going through the same perfection anxiety they are putting on their offspring.

The drive to “provide” for their children is depriving them of basic no-agenda parenting time. “If you’re working 16 hours a day, thinking you’re providing what your kid needs, you’re not,” Levine says.

She urges parents to take a self inventory, to re-examine their expectations, redefine their vision of the American dream to include a little less stuff and a lot more time. And she wants them to learn about discipline. Parenting is about love, but parents also have to be firm. Not every act requires an affirmation. “They’re terrible at the discipline half of raising children,” Levine says.

A lot of wisdom in that little excerpt, methinks. And I don’t think these issues are exclusive to people driving BMWs and sending their kids to private school. Let’s be honest: in the grand scheme of things, 99.9% of us in America are affluent.

So how does this relate to a blog that emphasizes a more childlike outlook on life? First of all, this is a perfect example of how parents are passing on Adultitis to their kids. Yes, it can be hereditary! (Check out Escape Adulthood Podcast #3 on Immunizing Your Kids from Adultitis.)

Secondly, we need to recapture a little of that perspective that kids naturally possess. The main reason children ask to be read Green Eggs and Ham for the one gazillionth time is not because they’re a big fan of strangely colored pork. It’s because they love the person reading them the story. Somehow, even though they’re lacking an extensive portfolio of life experience, kids know that those moments are what Mastercard would call priceless. They’d rather own one book read a million times by Dad than a million books they have to read themselves. In short, life is not about the stuff.

If parents really understood these things, I think this country would be a lot different. Now, for those of you who made it to the end of this long-winded and loosely structured rant, I guess I should probably sum it all up into an easily remembered sound bite of truth, so here goes:

More Green Eggs and Ham = Less Crack Heads.

Or something.