Kids are crazy, right? When they’re hungry, they’re rude and impossible to deal with. They’re often demanding and act as though they’re incapable of doing anything for themselves. Gratitude? Forget about it. Most of the time, they don’t even seem to realize that anyone else exists in the world but them.
Of course, none of this is new. In the 1600s, the French satirist Jean de La Bruyère captured the timeless selfishness of the young quite well. “Children are overbearing,” he wrote, “supercilious, passionate, envious, inquisitive, egotistical, idle, fickle, timid, intemperate, liars, and dissemblers; they laugh and weep easily, are excessive in their joys and sorrows, and that about the most trifling objects; they bear no pain, but like to inflict it on others.”
It’s hard to argue with him, isn’t it?
But here’s the kicker: He finished this scathing list with a line that lands like a gut punch. “Already they are men.”
The point? Before we get too high and mighty about the craziness and selfishness of our kids, maybe it’s time to look in the mirror.
Don’t we get hangry? Don’t we take people for granted? Don’t we swing between elation and frustration? Aren’t we often consumed by trivial things? Haven’t we all struggled to regulate our emotions and desires? And haven’t we had a lot more time to practice these things too?
So cut them some slack. You’re already cutting yourself plenty.