Bridging the Generation Gap Between You and Your Kids

As parents it is our responsibility to take care of our children. We should take care of them from the time they were born, whenever they get and their school. As parents, it is our responsibility to teach them the good manners and even the small skills that should get them ready for the future. With parents, they would learn how to love and be loved which will be reflected with the way they deal with the society. Someday, when they become parents they would show the same love and concern for their kids which should go on for generations.

As much as possible we wanted to understand our kids and their environment. Kids are very fragile and have a lot of things to deal with as they grow up. From the school, their friends and peers, they have to juggle them all together and somehow survive in that situation as an adult. As parents, it is our responsibility to guide them to be successful and responsible citizens someday.

But somewhere along the line, we find ourselves being unable to understand our children. They certainly now have different priorities of everyday that we don’t even comprehend why that something is very important for them. We were also adolescents once but we seemed to have trouble understanding them.

Clearly our generation is not the same as the current generation. When we were young, we used to be more laid back. Our grandparents are even more laidback as things just unfold really slowly. As an effect, we are also a little bit laid back although not as much as our parents and grandparents did.

Today’s generation though is totally different. Because of technology, things could unfold really fast. Information gathering is not only from the newspaper radio and television but on the internet. Things unfold really fast that as parents we often fail to see why the really need to have a constant internet connection, an mp3 player, a mobile phone and other gadgets.

Although we understand the need for connectivity, our kid’s interpretation of being online is totally different from us. In our end we use the internet and technology for business purposes but our kids use the internet to connect to their friends, have fun and even express themselves. The connection to the internet is their life while we still value the physical connection with the family.

Although there is a clear generation gap between us and our kids, we have to remember that the values that are passed on through generations are still the same. We have to remind our kids that even with all the technology and advancement today, it is still very important for the kids to learn the values and should be observed all the time.

It is also important for us to talk to our kids about these advances in technology. They may still observe their current practices after 20 to 30 years, but it is important to let them know the disadvantages of technology and how to properly harness this to their advantage. The generation gap maybe there but the values are still the same and it is through these values that we can connect to our children.