The Blue Board

But 9/10 times, if the parent is actively teaching their kids that hard work pays off and other values like that, they are going to learn and use those skills in their adult lives.

If the parent refuses to teach their kids those kinds of values, how can the kid ever learn them?

Magic?

Reported for language.

So did your dad teach you ANYTHING at all?

Did he ever push you to work hard or anything or was he just a dead beat?

I am gonna get off here right now. Will check later.

Of course it does, and those choices made by that individual are usually based on the values put into them by their parents.

Children don't just magically turn into lazy brats on their own, their parents are major contributors to it.

To a point, as I stated earlier, out of 12 people it was 50/50 on how they turned out. Great parent =/= great kids/future adults, just as crappy parents =/= crappy kids/crappy adults.

You'll be surprised at how many do.

To a very great point.

To say otherwise is to suggest that parenting has no effect whatsoever on children and their future lives. While it may not be 100%, it is a crap tons more likely than the other way around.

I do believe so.

Could always be due to the fact that home owners are worried about personal liability issues. A lawn service ensures itself and is responsible for any workman's comp issues. If a kid gets hurt cutting your grass, then you could have some serious liability. There has also been changes in the types of things parents feel safe about ther children doing. I was cutting grass by the second grade. I wouldn't let my daughter that is in 5th grade cut grass. Kids not cutting grass is not a sign of the apocolyps.

Just do what my parents did. If your kids don't eat their veggies, just melt a ton of Cheez Whiz and pour it over them. Veggies become delicious in an instant.

Seriously though, that is how my parents did it. I don't know if that's the reason why or my tastebuds just got more experienced but I eat veggies like they are going out of style now.

They are cutting it and smoking it

1 An increase in laziness is not the primary cause for increase in obesity, our diet has changed rapidly over the past 50-60 years with a huge increase in simple carbohydrates and sugars.

2 People aren't more lazy today, in fact I'd say most people work much longer hours as the work week has shifted from a norm of about 40 hours to anywhere from 60-100 hours for some people.

3 People are cheap/less willing to trust kids cutting their lawn or even being on their property/around their home. Likewise, some parents are less likely to trust their kid running around and interacting with strangers

4 Parents have found more valuable uses of their kids' time(music lessons, camps, foreign language instruction, etc.) That build human capital and will end up being far more valuable to them later in life than the 5 dollars they earn per lawn.

5 How are manually labor and "good values" related at all?

6 Standards of living have risen dramatically allowing families to afford things like video games without requiring them to work in order to gain the needed income in order to make such a purchase.

You shouldn't speak in absolutes. Are there some people who have the power to change it? Of course. Are their some people who, because of circumstances beyond their control, are powerless to make meaningful changes? Yes.

I've noticed a disturbing overraction to the perceived lack of "personal accountability" in our country. On the one hand, we, as a society, do need more personal accountability. The overrraction to it is really irritating, though. We have huge portions of the population who look down on people because of their life circumstances, with no knowledge or understanding of the factors that lead someone into those circumstnaces.

Poverty begets more poverty. And poverty also leads to obesity, because healthy food is expensive and in most poor neighborhoods, doesn't even exist. We have thousands of "food deserts" in the poorest neighborhoods in our country, where the closest grocery store is more than 3 miles away. What are those people supposed to do to get healthy food?