Editorial: Don’t play the blame game if something doesn’t happen

I had an interesting conversation this week with one of my friends about the current generation of children. Unfortunately, I have not been blessed to be a parent as of now, but as conversed with my friend, it’s clear that this generation of offspring is different from when we grew up.

What I want people to know is that I am not criticizing anybody’s parenting skills at all. As parents, raise your kids the right way. Raise them to love and cherish others. The point that my friend and I specifically discussed revolved around children participating in activities.

We specifically reflected on the situation from last August about Charles City High School sports not being able to field a football team. Students, as well as the community, had a hard time trying to fathom why the sport wasn’t available. Similarly, Charles City will not be fielding a soccer, softball, or baseball team this year due to low numbers.

Have the kids’ interest changed? Sure they have. It’s just a shift in times and there is no one to blame. You can’t force a kid to do something they don’t want to do.

My friend and I conversed about growing up and how our parents placed us in activities to stay active and keep us busy. Today, there are some parents who allow their kids to make those choices. There is nothing wrong with that at all, but when a situation arises like it did with Charles City’s athletics this year, who is to blame?

The school has done its due diligence by offering the sport. However, when students elect not to participate in the sport, then how can a team be fielded? The same can be said about youth sports and other organizations. When a group tries to reach out for assistance to start a program like the boys scouts or girl scouts, if no response is garnered, how do you make something come to fruition?

There is too much blame going around about why this doesn’t exist or why that doesn’t exist. Instead of blaming one another, there has to be a realization that times have changed. There are kids that don’t want to participate in certain activities and parents are supporting this. As I said before, there is nothing wrong with parents supporting this, but when the older generations don’t have anything to do in regard to recreational and school activities, don’t blame those organizations that host it.

In the end, my message to all is that times are changing along with our kids. There are many things out there that our kids are involved in. Social media, music, connecting to the world; those are all things that I, for one, did not have access to. I was just happy to have a 13-inch color television in my room.

Let’s stop playing the blame game and instead, continue to encourage and respect the decisions others make so that love and growth can bond our communities together instead of separating them.