theKid is Gen Alpha, and young enough that (most) adults dismiss those generally angsty feelings with
Oh, you’re just young. You’ll get over it … yet is still old enough to be clinically depressed.
theKid does not like school. Does pretty well at it, teachers are consistently complimentary, other kids are yelling “Bye!” as theKid is leaving campus … but theKid does not like school. Hates going, in fact.
Explained to me that the workload, the people, the hours, and the expectations weigh heavy, and make for an overall unpleasant experience.
Math is a pain in the tookas.
Teachers occasionally fail at instruction and the grades reflect.
Some of the kids are just nasty for no discernible reason (Mean Girls is gender-fluid).
Also, between the coursework and the extra-currics, theKid is tired all the time.
I get that.
One of my jobs is chauffeur (spell that ten times right) and while driving theKid home from school mentioned something I’d read that suggested depressed people preferred to be depressed, helped manage those expectations / keep ‘em low, and were generally distrustful of feeling good.
theKid said, I get that.
To be clear, theKid isn’t morose or self-ending or despondent, nothing close to that.
Just kinda bitter/resentful that life is the way it is, and wishes it could/would/should be better.
Now, admittedly … I cannot entirely relate.
Was not raised in the age of social media.
In my nascent days, the elders just kicked the kidlings outside during the summertime/off-hours, who located other kidlings with whom to interact then got on the porch and stayed there after the streetlights came on.
We touched grass every day.
Bullying was confined to the playground, and even then, lasted only as long as the attention span.
Friendships formed organically … “play dates” were not a thing.
Tried to explain to theKid that, for some, childhood is like this … the Deep Suck … following orders, engaging with the unpleasant, doing the unwanted. Just gotta hang in there until adulthood.
When you then get to follow orders, engage with the unpleasant, and do the unwanted … but this time for money.
Told theKid that Half and other half are totally dedicated to making theKid’s future as effortless as possible … lots of money at our deaths, knowledge re investing and saving, excelling at the academics so no need to remake the wheel … that bish is already built, only gotta ride.
Hopefully some of it is getting through.
But the Deep Suck is real.
Methinks it is better for childhood to suck and then have life get better during adulthood … not much better, but comparatively.
Methinks those who peak in childhood (elementary – high school) lead miserable lives … the Deep Suck for a lifetime. Ick.
Read an article where the authors asked a bunch of elders to predict the future for Gen Alpha … and the consensus was generally overall quite bleak.
Political systems in turmoil … the earth failing … economic gaps becoming a chasm … too many humans, not enough humanity (or maybe too much, depending) … AI advancing and people getting left behind.
This generation – Gen Alpha – will never know a world without the Internet unless the grid fails.
Eeee.
Read a book, “One Second After” (would not recommend unless one considers the Walking Dead to be lighthearted fanfic [Darryl was my favorite but stopped watching when Negan killed Glen … you bahstad!]) that basically covers ‘Murrica after the lights go out.
Does not take long for chaos to reign, people reverting to limbic, might makes its own rights …
Some stat somewhere said that humans are five electricity-less years away from caves … which is what our homes would become albeit without the structural integrity of a hole carved out of rock.
Hmmm. Eeee.
On a better note, theKid isn’t on meds so that’s something.
And there are moments … long moments … of levity and light in theKid’s demeanor. Happy about that.
But methinks theKid finds life to be a burden already, with only another 90 or so more years to go.
Half thinks theKid is dramatic.
Half grew up different tho’.
Growing up in the age of embargoes and cheap gas, no seatbelts or headgear, failed banks and a functional Congress? Grown folks’ business was just that, and we (the children) had no clue.
Now it is as if society forces children to mature quickly while constantly infantilizing them.
A mistake uploaded to the innernets at 14 can haunt a person for a lifetime, yet Meta and the ‘Gram and TikTok sexualize commercialized lifestyles.
A young woman lost out on a career opportunity because she kept her personal life off social media, limited her posts&pics to education/profession-related, but the HR decision-maker felt she didn’t “know” the applicant well enough, not enough “deets.”
My goodness. The world.
Millennials and beyond must manage their lives like reality shows without the script, only the storyline.
I feel for them. I really do. Even better / more important … GOD does.
What’s sad tho’ is Millennials and younger are the furthest away from CHRIST than any prior generation … which likely explains a lot.
theKid knows CHRIST but doesn’t yet trust HIM because theKid doesn’t understand why the Maker of all things would care about theKid. Which is fully self-explanatory but theKid has some growing to do yet.
Half has theKid on Instagram, much to my horrified chagrin.
Very limited exposure, but still. Exposed.
I get it. Half is proud of theKid, and many (most? all?) of theKid’s friends/teammates/contemporaries have their own highlight reel (“Ah ain’t gaht time fa oh’s”).
I suppose the best parents of the coming generations can do is listen to their children, hear what is being said, and prepare those babies for the Deep Suck.
Because the world is unkind, and does not care, and will quickly move on to the next shiny thing.
But to/for the LORD we are HIS shiny things, and HE will never lose interest in us, or cast us aside, or be unkind. {1 Kings 8:57}
Methinks theKid would do well to remember the Deep Suck is only this world, and while we are in it we need not be of it.
Extend a hand to JESUS, and the Deep Suck loses its grip.
Keep swimming? Go under.
And deep.