Unwrapping the Bubblewrap kids

I have decided that my new approach to youth mentoring, pastoral care of young people, coaching etc. will be to have the specific aim of 'unwrapping the Bubblewrap'.

Much of the global research in recent years, parenting programs and education information has referred to today's young people as the Bubblewrap generation. This simply means that they are almost being wrapped in cotton wool or Bubblewrap by overprotective parents and, therefore, they are not being allowed to grow up as normal kids who make mistakes, fall out of trees, fall off their skateboards, step out of line at school, know that it's okay to fail while moving out of their comfort zones and learn how to respect their teachers and other people in authority without mum or dad threatening to sue the school and so on.

A lot of the situations I have witnessed in recent years concerning recalcitrant children can be directly linked to family life that is not functioning too well. A case in point is a student who was misbehaving. The parents sat with the Principal and they talked about what was going on. Dad berated mum and blamed her for being too soft and it was an embarrassment being a part of that meeting. Those are the days when I want to pull a mirror out of my pocket and hold it up before the parents and say,"Take a look in the mirror and tell me what you see. You spend all your time blaming the school for not educating your child, yet the school is doing remarkably well when we hear how the two of you communicate with each other. If that's how you speak in front of your children, what chance have they got? What sort of role models are you? What sort of parenting skills do you need upskilling on? Maybe the best thing that's happening in your child's life is that he or she is coming to school. Now I understand what your child means when he or she tells me that school represents a time to be with their friends. It is a place of safety and security." Of course, if I said that, I would likely be sued!!

A student who is in trouble for breaking a rule or has not received an award of some sort which he or she feels they should have received, does not come forward and discuss it with a teacher or someone in senior management. No, they talk to mum and dad and one of them basically passes the message on to the child, "leave this with me. I will sort it out." Then the phone rings or an email is received from an irate parent threatening the school with this or that .... No wonder the child is battling!

I have seen instances where really good kids have perhaps not achieved what they would like to have achieved. A temporary lapse which can easily be sorted. Instead, an irate parent gets involved, the child gives up, becomes moody and surly and the Bubblewrap is tightened around him or her.

It's time to break this cycle and educate a new generation of young people who can have fun, which is not life threatening, who learn how to communicate effectively, who have respect for themselves and others and who begin to understand the importance of developing meaningful relationships with other adults, teachers and coaches so that one day they will be able to become pillars of society able to hand over the baton of responsible citizenship to the generation that follows them.

Now I need to create some strategies :-)