Carrying Lawn Chairs

Recently I did a show about the seeming mental health crisis among youth. I mentioned many of the attacks on our youth today, such as sexual perversion, lack of play and so much more. Since, I have become aware of a book called, The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt. He says that the smart phone has brought much harm to young people, with depression and even suicide greatly increasing. He says that young people have gone from play based to phone based, and that this has even change the chemistry in their minds. He says get the phones away from the kids until at least 16, and then in a limited way, even using a flip phone. He recommends much more authentic play, even play gatherings in the evenings or weekends among friends. And he calls for more recess during school. Much damage is being done to our young people from so many fronts, as Mr. Haidt points out, the smart phone is a major culprit.

I recently heard a speech from a teacher of the year who talked about the innovative way he taught history. He got the students involved in acting out history to better understand it and to enjoy learning about it. And the teacher had the students put together a booklet for students much younger than them. This would help them explain the history in a simple and understandable way. And he would let the younger students grade the booklets. This is the kind of innovative teaching that is so needed to get young people interested in learning. The teacher I heard speak has answers for education of young people. I wish I had such a teacher in school instead of the typical teacher in front of class and students sitting chairs taking notes just so they could do well on tests, not actually to learn.

In general, parents are obsessed with the future of their children and largely ignore the present with them. It is so important that parents spend time with their children in an unconditional love way. They can play games with them, ride bikes, take a walk or many other things, though watching TV is not suggested. Children so want the love of their parents, but so many parents are only concerned about their children getting ahead ande think they have to get them started on the path of success at an early age. It's also about their self worth. Children don't have fun playing organized sports. With boundaries, let them have free play. They are born knowing how to play and have an innate desire to do so. Play is what children do, but parents do so much to disrupt that. Please parents, spend more time enjoying the present with your children. A quote from Stacia Tauscher captures it greatly : "We worry about what a child will be tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today."

Recently went to my ten year old nephew's hockey game. Quite the experience. My nephew is my niece's son. Sat with my niece at the game with a dozen or more parents of the players around us. During the game, nearly all of the parents were yelling at their sons and the other players throughout the game to take various actions during the game. On a breakaway they screamed and were nothing short of hysterical. This is crazy and shows what I have been talking about for a long time. It seems obvious that organized sports are largely about the parents, as their behavior at the game showed. What motivates them. It probably shows a lack of self worth on their part. Then after the game, I went with my niece and the other parents to wait for the players to come out of locker room. They won the game and the parents treated them like heroes. I didn't talk to my nephew about the game, I was just interested in how he was doing. These young boys get the message that they will gain the love of their parents if they perform well in sports or other activities. This is why I oppose organized sports for children. They are much happier playing pick up games, and they learn more about competition because they are learning abpou themselves. In organized sports, young people are afraid to make mistakes. Some good news though. My niece told me that when my nephew had a day off during the week from school, he played all day in the back yard by himself playing all sorts of invented games. He again proved that children have a natural desire to play. SOme parents look at free play as a waste of time. Not only is it not a waste of time, it is so necessary for children.

Play is so necessary for children, yet so many parents aren't aware of it or look at it as a waste of time. Children don't have fun playing organized youth sports, parents though think it is such a normal thing to do. Organized youth sports for children is largely about the parents and their self worth. Children are born knowing how to play and with a strong desire to do so. That is what they do, with boundaries, please let them do it.

A little over two years ago our family got together at my brother's place. My nephew was nearly one then and starting to walk. My brother has thick grass that he cuts high. My nephew was trying to walk in the yard. He would take a step in the thick grass and then fall. He would immediately get up and start walking again. He would take another step and then fall, but wasn't phased in the least and would get right up again. He had not concept of failure. He was just being as he knew to be. He hasn't been brainwashed into thinking he is a failure if he couldn't walk without falling. This is such a great lesson. Failure is a learning process, it is actually valuable. Not that we want to live recklessly, but going through life being imprisoned by the fear of failure stunts so many. Then I saw this same nephew a few weeks ago at age three. He is now a reall ball of fire who loves to play. Children are born with the desire to play. So often though, well meaning parents get in the way of their children's innate desire to play. They even think that play is frivilous and a waste of time. They think children should start focusing on self improvement for their future lives. Just the opposite is the case, children so need authentic play to develop into mentally healthy adult.

So often, parents praise their children for their accomplishments and not for who they really are. Praising them just for their accomplishments leaves children with an empty feeling and puts stress on them to achieve even more. What children want is the love of their parents. Yes, children need boundaries and to have more responsibilities as they grow older, but they need a foundation of over being loved and being known for who they are. Often parents have an ideal of who their child should be and get in the way of the child flowering in their own way. Praise is necessary, but just praising accomplishments does more harm than good.

So many parents these days want to get their children started in all sorts of structured activities at a young age. This is nothing short of stealing their childhood. Children so need authentic natural play, but many parents think that real play is a waste of time. Nothing could be further from the truth, children are meant for natural play and it's a must for good development and a happy well adjusted adulthood. Children are not little adults, their minds are wired to think like adults. Forcing them to is very detrimental and brings lasting harm.

Since prayer was unconstitutionally taken out of government schools in thed early 1960, all sorts of depravity has filled the vacuum. Though the number of teens who are sexually has dropped by about a third since the 1990s, surveys show that 50 percent plus of teens have had sexual experiences by the time they reach 18. Adults say that teens are just going to have sex and there is nothing that can be done. But, they don't say the same thing about smoking, drinking, drugs or reckless driving. What these adults really hate is having to follow the higher power of God telling them right from wrong. They don't believe it in their own lives and don't want to teach their kids to believe in God and the Bible. 26 percent of teens describe themselves as LGBTQXYZ. It totally because of brainwashing. What these young people really hunger for is love and acceptance. They see that they can get this if they become part of the perverted and confused LGBT crowd. And of course many others who don't claim to be in the group encourage them to let people know that they have an open mind. Others claim that LGBTQ people are an oppressed and bullied group to try to make them victims and thus victim "advocates" come out of the woodwork and politicians use another "oppressed" group for perceived political gain. The normalization of teens describing what their supposed sexuality is is all part of the ruse as well, thus trying to make the masses think it is normal to think that each teen is some sort of sexual type, and thus imply that sex is for marriage between a man and woman is some old fashioned idea that doesn't exist anymore. The Marxists behind this evil effort are all about destroying the family and religion, two foundations of society. Pushing sex onto young people is all about power adn control, the Marxists want to get the youth sexually enslaved so they will be able to overall control them thoughout their lives. Teen sex is so harmful to the teens, not only physically with STDs, but spiritually and emotionally as well. Most teens regret getting sexually involved when they did. Those adults pushing sex on them couldn't care less though, they have so many evil ulterior motives behind their evil.

Read an article claiming there is no such thing as learning styles. All I know is that I have had a hard time reading since I started reading. I took a course on how to see words differently form the Davis Dyslexia Association. It helped me focus differently and see things form a different perspective. It is still a challenge to read, but it is more doable. So just taking myself, it shows that there are different ways to learn and that people are different. Many though still prefer kids going to school and sitting in class all day and taking notes and the n giving answers for tests. That works for many but not for everyone. For some it is essentially impossible.

I heard a sad story recently from a fellow employee. I asked him where he grew up. he told me that he grew up in two towns. During the school year he lived with his parents and sister, but during the summer he lived with his grandparents in another town because his parents were taking his sister around the state and country to play in basketball tournaments. My fellow employee told me he hated going on those trips so his parents just shipped him off to his grandparent's house for the summer each year. So the parents were indirectly telling him that their daughter's basketball games were more important than he was to them. Whether they intended that message or not, that is the message they were sending. It no doubt hurt him more than he could realize at the time, even if his grandparents were caring people who did a good job helping to raise him. This is another example of how the priorities of parents are so misguided related to organized sports for young people. The parents of my fellow employee were blinded by ambition to get their daughter to sports stardom. So much of this blind ambition permeates parents who put their children into organized youth sports. Organized youth sports is dysfunctional in so many ways. So many parents are on automatic pilot when it comes to putting their children into organized youth sports. They are so sure it's the thing to do. It never crosses their mind that their child does not want to play organized sports, especially at a very young age. Again, young kids playing an organized sport on a field, court or rink with parents in the stands screaming is dysfunctional. Again, children want the love of their parents and authentic play, organized youth sports brings neither.

Government schools are destroying our children. There is now a ROO chatbox pushed by Planned Parenthood that tries to brainwash young people into its sexual perversion. It essentially uses artificial intelligence to connect with young people that manipulates them to contact Planned Parenthood for "counseling" in hopes that they can get them to take drugs claimed to be able to change one's sex,(it's impossible) or to get them sexually active in hope that they will be future abortion customers. Such evil being foisted onto young people from the evil left. Government schools have got to go or our country won't survive. Theresa Barbale has a website: www.mentorprogram.org that fights this evil and offers actual help to young people.

The trend of parents putting their kids into organized sports at a young age in hopes of giving them an advantage down the road in sports continues in a big way. It seems to always be about the future with many parents and not about their kids enjoying the present. In my opinion it is based in feelings of inferiority. Parents think their children have to get started early or they will never make it, as if that is the most important thing. Organized youth sports is dysfunctional and the young kids don't want to be there, but they do it because they think it is where their parents want them to be and the love of their parents is of prime importance to them. Kids enjoy pick up games and that is where they really learn to compete, and they gain self knowledge that is actually what is needed to get along in the competitive world. With boundaries, let kids be kids.

Nearly all of the young men who have mass murder have essentially been the same kid. They come from a broken home with the father not present nor really caring. The mother is of often incapable, not caring and otherwise neglectful. The child receives no parental love and turns elsewhere. He is also bullied by peers at school and elsewhere. The mother will often harshly criticized him for school failures and gets him drugged to better help him cope. All the madness, dysfunction and pain have caused him to go into isolation where he becomes absorbed in violent video games for hours at a time and likely pornography as well. He loses touch with reality that causes him to go on a killing rampage in hopes of getting recognition, because in a warped way that would be love that he never received. None of this excuses murder, but there reasons that such people exist. It's the same with all the murders in the inner cities of major cities. Democrat welfare policies have paid women more to have babies if the father didn't stick around. This has resulted in the out-of-wedlock birthrate in the African American to surge to over 70 percent. SO many growing up without fathers and mothers who are incapable and uncaring. Especially the boys turn to gangs to get their familial needs met. Thus, the high rates of murders and overall crime in the inner city. Every child comes out of the womb precious and innocent. It's their dysfunctional environment that turns them into mass murderers. Hitler came out of the womb and innocent precious child. His father severely beat him and otherwise abused him. He stuffed down all of the pain and emotions that came about from the treatment of his father and released it onto the world decades later. Alice Miller has written books that talk about the abuse of Hitler and how that turned him into a monster. The Drama of the Gifted Child is one of Miller's most famous books. Again, all children are born innocent, it's their environment that turns them into monsters.

Parental mindsets in the U.S. and around the world are often warped. What kind of "parents" urge their child to mutilate and drug themselves to change their gender. It's impossible to change one's gender, but to even want to is deranged. It is child abuse to the hilt to encourage children or anyone to try to change their gender. Parents pushing or even just accepting the LGBTQ madness is evil and so harms young people as well. Parents have come off the rails in so many ways over the past few decades. It is largely because God has been pushed out of the picture. They have no foundation on which to base right and wrong, thus anything goes. And many parents have skewed mindsets on such things as getting their children involved in organized youth sports. Why would parents put their very young children into organized youth sports? What are they really hoping for? Why are parents so obsessed with the their children's organized sports events? Whey do they so get into the games? What's it really all about. Many parents can't grasp that very young children especially, don't like playing organized youth sport and that organized sports get in the way of natural authentic play. It seems that organized sports is mostly about the parents and their future and not the kids. It's the same with schooling, parents have warped views of how to help their children deal with schooling. It's all about the future and getting into elite schools with many parents, so they start pushing them at a young age to excel in school often in place of letting them play in an authentic way. The priorities of so many parents are out of whack. Parents have to get back to doing what is really good for their children in the present and not be so obsessed about the future. Live more in the present with them.

After every mass shooting, the left furthers its attempt to shut down the Second Amendment. They will use any situation in hopes of furthering their power. The left HATES the U.S. Constitution and the country in general. Republicans call for hardening schools and focusing on mental health which of course makes sense. I ask the question though, why have there been so many boys and young men who, starting with Columbine in 1999, have mass murdered? I say it is societal decay that has produce such killers. I say it began in the 60s with the sexual revolution and the welfare state, both major factors in breaking down the family. The sexual revolution gets more perverted as each generation goes by. Now it is pathetically claimed that little boys can become little girls and then use the girl's restrooms. Yes, society has gone mad. The welfare state has paid women to have more babies if the father doesn't stick around. This caused the out of wedlock birthrate and fatherless homes to massively surge. So many young people growing up in broken families. Put that on top of all the brainwashing young people get in school and elsewhere on sick sexuality and so many other lies and you have a scenario where there are massive numbers of very confused and disturbed young people. Though only an infinitesimal number of these very mentally disturbed young people mass murder, it is not surprising that when a country has millions of very disturbed young people that now and then one will totally go off the deep end and mass murder. The sexual revolution, the welfare state, kicking God out of schools, killing children in the womb and society overall and getting away from traditional values has created the millions of very disturbed young people. To stop this unspeakable evil, society has to return to God and traditional values.

After the latest mass shooting, this one in Uvalde Texas, the Democrats played their usual politics with their usual call for gun control. They really do want take our guns. Before the tragic Columbine shooting in 1999, mass shootings were extremely rare, but now they happen on a regular basis. What has happened? In my opinion, it all started in the 1960s when a major attack on the family began on many fronts. The sexual revolution and the welfare state came along in a big way, both have had devastating consequences for the family. Both have been major factors in the exploding divorce rate. Divorce leaves deep wounds in the children of divorce that they never fully recover from. And prayer was unconstitutionally taken out of schools in 1962 in a fraudulent Supreme Court ruling. All sorts of evil has filled the vacuum. Chewing gum and talking in class were problems in government schools before prayer was removed, now they have murders and transgender sexual assaults by males in women's restrooms. And the Catholic Church and other churches watered down their teachings to blend in more with society. The abortion legalization came along in 1973 that has planted in the minds of millions that human life is not valuable. The left has pushed every sort of perversion onto society imaginable. In my opinion, the environment that all of these misguided and evil actions have created has produced the rotten fruit of millions of very disturbed young people, especially young men. Many of them have come form homes without fathers and often abusive and uncaring and incapable mothers. They are often bullied in school as well. They get to the point where they have nowhere to turn. There is no teaching of right and wrong in their life. They have no foundation to build a life on. The often go into isolation and watch violent videos and porn. Their minds soon become warped. Some go really off the deep end and mass murder. Societal decay is the actual problem.

Often well meaning parents want their kids going nonstop in all sorts of activities. The parents think that they must be constantly busy or they will supposedly get behind in this world. Parents get their kids involved in sports in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, often more than one sport at a time, and then get them individual training as well. This is all so crazy. These young people don't enjoy this frenzied activity and it doesn't help them get ahead in the world anyway. Parents often emphasize being good at many things, including sports, school and other activities. They want them well-rounded, but being involved in many activities isn't being well rounded. Doing what you have have a bent towards and improving that and getting one's life in order with the duties of living is an actual definition of being well rounded. To be well-rounded, young people so need down time to decompress and learn who they are. Self knowledge is key to making it in the world. As we continue to point out, authentic play is a path to self knowledge as well. Continual frenzied activity gets in the way of needed down time and free play. The need for both never ends.

Schools tend to treat each student the same. There is however a segment of the population who think and see the world differently. They are not cut out to sit in a classroom all day and take notes and then give answers on a test. They are the visionaries, entrepreneurs, artists, adventurers, great leaders, disruptors and others who transform the world with their insights. They see things others can't see. They have an impulse towards establishing an ever greater self organizing force in the world. Such people have strong convictions because they can see the way things are heading and want to do something about it when the world is heading in a bad direction. The normal types can't do this. They are the stabilizers that keep things in line if the visionary gets to far out of line. Both are needed to make the world go. These visionaries are often punished for expressing how they act on their view of the world. They are nonconformist and many get so unsettled around them, including well meaning parents, teachers and others. Such minds are so needed in the world though.

A recent study shows that the number of teens who reported they were persistently sad jumped from 26 to 44 percent from 2009 to 2021. The left gets it wrong or just plain lies about why this is happening. Much of the teen angst comes from the brainwashing they get from the perverted left. The left wants to get young people enslaved by their sexual passions so they will be easier to control overall. It is a total sham to tell young people that their identity comes from a certain letters they they have made up to describe sexual perversion. The brainwashing is overwhelming young people causing much confusion, which thus creates angst and depression among young people. The left though claims that young people are depressed because they are bullied because of their "sexual identity." No, they are depressed because they are living a lie. Society needs to get back traditional moral values. That is what is actually needed to lift the sadness form young people.

A recent study form Tennessee shows that those who attended government preschool had inferior outcomes in grade school than those who didn't attend preschool. It helps to confirm what we have been saying about parents putting their children in school and organized sports a a young age. It not only doesn't help them down the road, it can bring harm. Starting a child early in an endeavor in hopes that it will give them a better chance to make it in the world so often backfires. Again, CHILDREN NEED TO PLAY!!! Organized activities get in the way of a child's natural desire to play, whether it's preschool or organized sports or other activities. One doesn't need a study to confirm that.

Kids need free authentic play. It's what kids naturally do. It's a major factor that leads into a healthy adulthood. They gain self knowledge through authentic play, thus are better able to get along in the competitive world. That said, children need boundaries as well, they can't just run wild and free. Parents must be eternally vigilant with their children, while not hovering over them, except with very young children, they should be concerned with their physical safety and keeping them safe from evil on the internet and keep them away from unsavory peers and adults. It's a major challenge, let them have autonomy, but still instill boundaries, but it must be done. It seems a number of parents get it backwards, the set strong boundaries when their children should have autonomy, and they let their kids run wild when they should have boundaries.

I oppose organized youth sports for young kids, however no problem with it for teens. I read a story about a group of Canadian men who looked back fondly to their days of playing on a hockey team when they were in their teens. They have great memories of their time on the team even with its many hours of practice, much travel and other challenges. And they give much credit to their hockey playing days for their success in life. Kids playing organized sports at a young age usually don't have good memories of those times because they didn't really enjoy it at that age. The often do have memories of playing pick up games and free authentic play overall.

The late great UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, one of the winningest coaches of all time, didn't emphasize winning. He emphasized process, learning techniques, playing together as a team, respect for teammates and much more. Wooden enjoyed teaching at practices more than the games. He didn't focus on other team, just what his team was doing and what they could control. He said he didn't pay much attention to the scoreboard during the game. So one of the winningest coaches ever, considered by many to be the greatest coach ever in any sport, did not emphasize winning. Who woulda thunk. It seems like winning means everything to so many. Just what is winning? It's points on the scoreboard. Yes, I enjoy supporting winning teams as well, but so many are obsessed by winning. Winning is the end result of doing things the right way. So many lives are so invested in winning. It means so much to them. Yes, professional teams have to win or changes will be made. It is a business, To get customers, teams have to win. No problem with that, but again winning comes about by doing things properly in practice. It seems that is what should be enjoyed, but of course most fans don't see practice, but only the end result. Without ruining fun for people, it can be hoped that there will be a better perspective on winning by the masses that are obsessed by it.

Throughout the book I have spoken against young kids being involved in organized youth sports. There is an exception though. I support such organizations as the Boys and Girls Clubs where kids, often from poor and dysfunctional, are involved in organized sports. Often, the coaching, mentoring and even love these young kids get at such organizations is about the only time they get such attention. Their home life is often chaotic and uncaring, playing organized youth sports is a needed respite from their troubled situations at what they call home.