The Cons of Change.

I have come to realize that I’m not as young as I used to be. I’ve come to realize that the world has changed so much from what it used to be; the innocence of childhood is gone, the respect of younger ones is far lost and the stages of maturity are far gone. Why? Change, the only constant thing in life is change they say. But what they forgot to add was that with every change comes advantages and disadvantages, the latter being greater than the former; I will explain.

I went to a get together yesterday with a friend whose cousin’s birthday it was. She just turned 22 or 23, he wasn’t sure. Anyway we got there and even before stepping in through the door we could smell juveniles from ten feet away. We both walked in telling ourselves we’d not spend much time there as it probably wasn’t our kind of crowd. True to thought, the room was filled with them, juveniles I mean. Though I use the word ‘juvenile’, the appearance of the people in question is everything far from young; with 22inches Brazilian hair, runway model like makeup and handbags that can be seen on the streets of Hollywood oh and let me not forget the acquired accents that make me wonder whether they’ve actually all lived or schooled abroad. Now to conclude on the reason I call them juvies, they are probably all within the ages of 19 and 23 and have succeeded in slapping on at least 5 years on top their original ages by wearing so much makeup and fixing obviously fake hair and nails.  Now please don’t tell me that the age of maturity is 18 because in Africa it’s not; if your folks are still paying your fees, letting you drive their car, giving you allowances and you are still under their roof, then you’re still mainly a kid so lose the ‘I’m an adult crap’. Adulthood is not attained by how old you are but by how responsible you are. I mentioned to my friend, while we sat alone at the dining table feasting on the nice meal in front of us and laughing at how old we are and how children no longer know the meaning of the word respect, that I would blog about this. As if to confirm my concerns on the morals of youth in our society today, one girl whom my friend confirmed to be about 20 in age was asking a group of guys sitting together who would be the ‘male stripper’ for the party! She may have been playing but the confidence and seriousness with which the question was asked was alarming and thought considering. This behavior and sheer lack of respect for the few people in the room whom were obviously older than her is a clear indication of how much the world has changed and is changing. Oh how could I forget the different colored bottles on display on the table?! Moet, Rosey, Sheridan, all kinds of red wine etc… My friend was completely alarmed at the quality of drinks accessible to the kids, drinks he didn’t fail to mention that “his folks would serve ONLY to AUGUST visitors”! lol.. I thought it was funny but he had a point.

I guess all of the above is a clear indication of how kids are raised these days. I said to him on our way back that I really couldn’t blame the lifestyle these kids have adopted;  partying, smoking, etc, because they’ve probably had access to a comfortable and luxurious lifestyle so why not have fun? While I agree it’s good and ok to let your kids have the finer things of life, I don’t agree with spoiling them to the point where they don’t become responsible self-discovering individuals who aren’t cloaked under the umbrella of ‘daddy’s wealth’. Give them ONLY what they NEED, NOT what they WANT. If they have only what they need they will learn to appreciate the source of their fortune and will not become individuals lost in the reverie of adopting a western culture and accent.