by Ann Major

Created on: May 05, 2010   Last Updated: August 04, 2011

Within a thirty-year span, sitcoms like "Leave it to Beaver" (1957) giving way to "Married With Children"  (1987) clearly demonstrate that respect, dignity and familial love seem to be sorely lacking in the modern take of family values.

With both parents working these days, and many second and third marriages taking place, the nuclear family has broken down to being blended and extended ones, where there is no longer a parent at home to raise the child.  Sometimes, this responsibility has rested upon nannies, grandparents, school, society, and the media to educate children. Indeed, it takes an entire village to raise a child.

Values have changed whereupon if a child is in the wrong, they are absolved of any responsibility for their actions. Teachers are no longer supported when discipline is needed for a child.  Instead schools are blamed or sued whenever something goes wrong. Errant behavior is excused due to innocence of youth.  At which age do children know the difference between right and wrong?

Families no longer gather together for a home-cooked meal.  Fast food restaurants and quick take-out orders are modern meals of the day.  Instead of communicating at the table as a family, people talk on the cell phone to relay messages, leave notes on the whiteboard, text each other without any kind of social interaction.  The only attention children receive is when they get into trouble.  No wonder they turn to drugs, prescription pills to get the attention and excitement needed in their lives.

The long-gone days of hanging out in the schoolyard/backyard playing ball are long gone. This childhood freedom has given way to structured activities which involve Mom and Dad taxiing little Tommy to every sport and activity possible so that he is stressed to the hilt with too much to do. Others spend much sedentary time sitting in front or interacting with machines because high tech seems to have taken over their lives. Human contact is a thing of the past. 

There was little violence in past generations when children were let out to play.  There is a great deal of violence instilled in children these days when it comes to video games and media portrayal of modern life. Where "kids in the hood" used to represented the innocence of neighborhood friends, it now carries a more ominous tone, fraught with gangs, drugs, and violence.  It has become a dangerous world where children need to be watched 24/7.

As a

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