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Our Kids’ Mental Health Doesn’t Make Them Snowflakes
I don’t need to “toughen up” my daughter.
The state of Oregon just passed a bill expanding the reason for excused absences for students to include “mental health days.” You can imagine the kind of comments this has elicited in response to reports from news outlets.
“Snowflakes.”
“Kids need to toughen up.”
“Might as well teach them to get in the welfare line now.”
“Americans have gone soft and are now raising a generation of sissies and victims.”
TL;DR — The comments are awful and concerning.
The people making these comments are at the far end of the age range of my generation. Gen X. 50-somethings. The Boomers weren’t far behind.
They are a lawn chair away from being the “Hey kid! Get off of my lawn!” guy. They lauded how, when they were kids, they had to suck it up. I have some words for these members of my generation:
Congratulations. Look at what a healthy, empathetic, wholehearted, kind and emotionally aware human being you turned into. You are not what I want my child to grow into.
