Help For Troubled Parents

Jan 25th, 2010 by Trace

Troubled parents have a reason to be troubled, today. The entire culture has allied itself with the teen mentality. It began with the baby boomers—a generation who never grew up. This is largely because their depression-era parents didn’t want their little “Throckmortons” to have to go through what they went through—unfortunately, this included some of the tough character-building experiences. But, what these depression-era parents had going for them was an entire culture that allied themselves with most of their parenting ideologies. Kids knew it too. Parents raising their kids, just ten or twenty years ago, had more of our American culture backing them up– but nothing compared to the parents of the baby boomers. Certainly, in the 1950’s and 60’s parents had a built-in system of accountability by the watching eyes of neighbors, school teachers, extended family, the government, and the church.

Today, however, the cultural shift of “do what feels good” brought on by the baby-boomers, has come home to roost. Today’s teens our ARE doing what feels good—and they are doing it at every turn with little or no restraints and little or no consequences. In addition, neighbors, school teachers, extended family, the government, nor the church, are any longer helping troubled parents hold their troubled teens to a common standard of morally acceptable behavior. Tragically, today, all of the entities above may actually be encouraging a troubled teen to follow his heart and engage in whatever feels good for the moment. Remember, Hitler followed his heart! Parents are actually fighting, not just their troubled teens, but the very entities that used to be staunch allies of parents who raised their teens according to a common moral standard.

But, in our ever increasingly pluralistic, postmodern, and politically correct society, a common moral standard no longer exists. This is not only breeding chaos and anarchy in our culture; but, certainly in our homes. Troubled teens are the result. And since parents no longer feel they have the support of government, neighbors, schools, extended families, or even the church, troubled parents and families are another result.

Parents, it has never been more important to understand the times we live in. Therefore, it has never been more important to equip your kids with the knowledge of Christian apologetics. A website, cpyu.org, is just one of many good resources for books and DVD’s for this very purpose. Understanding the Times by Summit Ministries is another. Still another is the Truth Project by Focus on the Family. Once your child sees the bigger picture, you won’t look so odd to your teenager anymore. Today’s teens are as intelligent as any generation in history—and they are much more informed. What they are failing to acquire is wisdom. True wisdom, of course, comes from God and should be filtered through us. If our kids exercised wisdom, they would do more positive and constructive things with the huge access to information they have through vehicles such as the internet. But, as parents, we haven’t required much of our kids. Believe it or not, if you start young enough, kids will do what’s required of them. But, this is going to take a concerted effort on the part of today’s parents. The only option is more troubled parents and more troubled teens.

Shepherd’s Hill Farm is also coming out with a DVD that will give troubled parents a head’s up on the issues that will help them navigate today’s culture with their troubled teens. In addition, the outreach ministry of Shepherd’s Hill Farm, known as License To Parent, can be listened to at our website, www.license2parent.org. It is a 30 minute radio broadcast that can be heard on AM660 on Thursdays at 12: 30 pm and Saturdays at 11:00 am out of Greenville, SC. License To Parent is designed to offer insights and answer questions of troubled parents who are experiencing the fallout of today’s ever-increasingly godless American culture.