Snowflake Generation

I’ve heard people refer to some of today’s youth as “snowflakes.” Not all young people, by any means. But a significant number.

What’s a snowflake? Snowflake is slang for someone who believes they are as unique and special as a snowflake, overly sensitive, incapable of dealing with opinions different from their own.

Of course, it’s the snowflakes’ parents who are at fault. They created these snowflakes. Would you like the recipe? Here it is: in any argument or disagreement between your child and another person, always side with your child.

If disruptive behavior at school is a problem, tell the child it’s okay to express his feelings, and if the teacher doesn’t like it, that is the teacher’s problem.

If a school security officer admonishes the child to settle down or leave the class, and the child refuses to do either, so that the security officer has to drag the uncooperative kid out of class, take your child’s side and complain to the authorities that the security officer overreacted. Threaten litigation.

If your children are running around inside a restaurant, whooping and hollering, and other customers complain, well how dare they complain! Your kids are just being kids, and if some customers don’t like screaming kids in the restaurant, those people can leave. There are other restaurants in the world.

If your child is kicking the back of the seat in front of him, don’t make the child stop. Let your child know it is the person complaining about his seat being kicked who is the problem. That person should do the right thing and move to another seat.

What do these responses to misbehavior teach the child? I suspect the child learns he is always right in everything he thinks and does. I suspect the child learns that anyone who thinks differently from the child is wrong.

The child grows into a young adult who one day finds himself among other people who think very differently and who hold contrary opinions about many subjects. The young adult does what he has been taught is appropriate — he acts out, refusing to accept the notion that he might be wrong. After all, he’s never been wrong before, so how can he be wrong now? To accept the notion that he might be wrong would go against everything he has learned about himself and how the world works. It would make him question his own identity — and the ego can’t allow that to happen. The ego will go to extreme lengths to defend and support its identity. If everything you thought you knew is one day brought into question, then what is reality? The ego rigidly rejects the possibility of being wrong, even when the evidence of being wrong is blatantly obvious to others.

And so the world adds another snowflake to the Snowflake Generation. Feel sorry for them, for they are the ones who will suffer the consequences of their parents’ indulgences.