Category Archives: Environmental Issues

I am far from being an “authority” on parenting skills.  Fortunately, this post is not really about that.

From what I have seen in many parts of Turkey, children are raised differently from those in the U.S. – for the most part. Of course, there are exceptions.  But most children are treated like little gods and goddesses, doing what they want, eating what they want, and being fawned over constantly.  Frankly, it’s not my cup of tea.

Surely, there are also little ones that are also beaten every day of their lives.  That’s hard to swallow.

In the States, however, there seems to be a more full range of parenting skills from daily beatings, to timeouts, to Daddy’s little princess.  But we just don’t see the little gods as often.

For many months, I have wondered if there is any difference in how these children turn out.  In fact, I started writing a similar blog post last summer, and just couldn’t come up with the right words.  I unsuccessfully searched for data that would show the outcome – U.S. kids vs. Turkish kids: What parents are doing right!

This morning my blood is boiling and I decided to change the post a bit.  One thing I can say for Turkish kids is that they to  seem grow up with a lot of respect for themselves and for others.  Sure, there are those young adults that turn out to be thugs, but what I don’t see is their use of social media to prove what punks they are!

Take Facebook for example.  I love it.  I love keeping in touch with my friends and family across the pond.  I love meeting new folks here in Turkey.  I love watching videos of my talented “friends”.  I love reading good news like graduations and births.  These are things shared around the world.

But more and more, I see kids and young adults from the States using Facebook as a way to tout their ignorance and bad behavior.  Perhaps that is not the best way to put it.  Many of these kids are well educated.  But they write as if they don’t have a brain in their heads.  Sometimes it takes a lot of work just to decipher the unintelligible words.

Doubtless, poor parenting skills sometimes played a role in this.  But at some point in everyone’s life, you must realize that you are who you want to be.  You must take responsibility for your actions and words.  You must both give respect and demand respect.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all born with a “respect” gene?

The young adults are the absolute worst in my view.  I feel for the young parents out there in the world.  They have had little or no training on how to be a good parent.  But putting yourself out there on social media to show the world what an ass you can be is certainly inappropriate.  Gangstas, crackheads, whores.  Who would call themselves any of these things?  Why would you publicly call someone else these?  Have they no understanding that others read Facebook too?  Do they not realize that the police often access these pages?  And let’s not forget, that universities and prospective employers scour the internet as part of their background checks.

How can one talk about their loving innocent child in the same breath that they curse others or brag about being a complete criminal?  Is this an example of nature vs. nuture?

I am wondering, is this something that is only going on in the States?  Is anyone else seeing this in Turkey? in Europe?  Asia?  I am truly embarrassed by and for these folks.  But what can one blogger do?  I would love to hear your comments on this.