by Savanna Carlsen

Created on: March 01, 2009

Many parents are not encouraging their kids to be hard workers. They are not pushing their kids to accomplish anything or choose a career path. There is nothing wrong with talking to youth about their future. One doesn't have to force choices down their kids throats, but encourage them to do something. Tell them they can become somebody, anything they want to be. Strive for excellence, better yourself, work for a better future. Give to the community.

I've witnessed this laziness of youth at a local department store. Two young men are working the graveyard shift at this department store part time. Part time being about two nights a week. They are recent graduates of high school, having graduated two years before. There are mostly moms that work the graveyard shift at this store so they can stay home with their young or school ages children. There are also a handful of young kids who are working graveyards while they are in school all day. This is not the case for these young boys. When asked if they are going to school, the answer is no. When asked if they have another full time job during the day, the answer is no. When asked what they do with the rest of their week, the answer is....nothing. Sleep, hang out with friends, mess around. There is no ambition to do anything here. These boys still live at home in their parents basement. They have no ambition to get ahead. To get a place of their own. To find a career or a better job. They are perfectly content working two nights a week for $7.00 an hour.

If I were the parent of either of these boys, I would not put up with this laziness. There is absolutely no reason they can't get out and find a better job, or take some classes, or do something! One of the mothers of these boys is a teacher! The other boys dad drives him to work and picks him up, sometimes they car pool since one of the boys has his own piece of crap truck. Neither one of them strives for something better, for more. One seems to be perfectly content not owning his own car, not having any money, but just existing to exist. I believe that one of the boys is pretty intelligent. He seems to be a good artist. He should do something with his artistic talent and ideas. It could turn into something good for him, or society.

These kids are our future. What are we raising today but a large amount of lazy youth? There's no reason why anyone shouldn't continue to encourage more from our youth. It is up to them on how our nation turns out in the future. With more and more of these kids choosing to do nothing but sit around and live off their parents and not give to society, we will do nothing but continue to create a worse nation. It is up to us as as parents and the older generation to continually guide our youth to make this nation what it once was, a land of opportunity.

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