In these very enlightened times, every child has activities above and beyond the school day and every American family must go somewhere on vacation at least once each year. Our children must have their own rooms, closets full of toys they never play with and a new outfit for every special occasion. For this embarrassment of riches, are they grateful, obedient, even aware of all that is done in the name of their happiness? No.
            Most of today’s children are simply spoiled.
            In our enthusiastic quest to make our children’s happiness their highest priority, we have removed as much suffering and disappointment from their experience as we are able. They don’t have to wait for anything or work for anything, much less go without. As if life is governed by an enormous remote control allowing them to click their way past chores they don’t like, boring school subjects, prayers and homework, food they don’t wish to eat, the pain of getting a shot at the doctor’s office or the shame from being shot down and not making the team.
            We shield our children from suffering thereby guaranteeing ignorance of suffering’s value. All parents are guilty of this, single as well as those of us who are not single.
            We forget that life’s challenges hone us. I don’t know of anyone, single, married, divorced, rich, poor, working or unemployed who is not currently engaged in the struggle to simply survive. Let’s not let our children grow up too weak to face such challenges in their own lifetime.
            What will Janie do when she doesn’t get into law school? What if Paulie doesn’t land that job in LA? Worse yet, what will our children do when they lose their jobs, have sick children of their own or can’t make their mortgages? If they are not strong enough, these common problems will loom larger than life.
            No, we do our children no favor by making their lives ‘easier’ than ours were. The small disappointments we overcome help us handle the larger ones we are sure to eventually face.



Great news about Tess Almendarez Lojacono - Words and Images Magazine has accepted a flash fiction piece A Long Winter, for an upcoming issue and Envoy Magazine will publish a Christian fiction piece of mine, Lifting The Veil, in their next issue. Also, Etchings, an Australian magazine, has expressed interest in one of my longer short stories, Dingo.