Youths of Today are a pampered lot 

      Look at today’s youth, many of whom are growing up in affluence and comfort, and it is easy to be a youth now. Youths are pampered with every creature comfort and their every need is anticipated and met. They have more books, clothes and CDs that we ever could dream of. They have superfluous amount of money. 

     In Singapore, parents and government officials are voicing concern over what they say is increasing indolence among the country’s pampered youths. The government - linked Straits Times newspaper has done a survey, naming today’s youths ‘The Instant Noodle Generation.’ In the survey, 104 Singaporean youths were interviewed. When asked how dependant they were on maids, most rated themselves about seven out of 10 with 10 being completely dependant. Doesn’t this clearly show that youths of today are pampered to the extreme?

     According to Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower, nowadays, one in seven families has a foreign maid. Fifteen year old Kalliste Oh from Singapore, doesn’t make her bed, clean her room, iron her private school uniforms or straighten her 50 pairs of shoes. That’s what her family’s three Filipino maids are for, she says, I quote, “whatever I need, I ask for. It’s true. I can’t do anything” Ladies and gentleman, what does this tell us all? Youths of today are very, very pampered. 

     Pampered Singaporean youths now have to be taught basic house keeping skills, including how to wash their clothes and sweep floors, in an effort to make less reliant on their maids. Primary schools have introduced lessons with tasks such as making the bed and preparing toast. As they grow older, they graduate to cleaning shoes, making sandwiches, cooking noodles, sewing buttons on clothes and ironing. These youths in Singapore do not have a due about housework. Imagine what kind of parents these youths would become later in their life?
In China, for instance, the child policy set by the government which allows every couple to have only one child has encouraged parents to pamper their youths. Having the Chinese mentality, most parents prefer to have sons. And when they do, the child is tremendously pampered in so many ways. There have been many cases where Chinese parents pamper their sons by overfeeding them. This child becomes an obese child, is overprotected and thus the child will never grow up. His mother becoming his maid. All because this boy is too precious to his parent, this teenagers is spoilt rotten.

     This event leads to youths bullying parents. Not only bullying, some are abusive. Ever heard of it? Psychologist Eddie Gallagher has proven that pampered youths may turn into parent basher. Middle class parents are being victimized by spoilt youths. The study found that boys were more likely to engage in violent behavior than girls and that mother were more likely to become victims than fathers. According to study these assaults go largely unreported because parents are ashamed and believe their child’s violent behavior reflects poorly on their parenting skills. It’s difficult to believe that parents of today are being abused by their own children. But parents here are at fault too. Spoilt youths take advantage of their parents being so lenient with them. Today, many parents accept youths swearing at them. This would have been unthinkable during their parents generation. The parents ignore the swearing and the child loses respect and goes further.

There are many parents who are actually afraid of upsetting their sensitive teenagers and consequently tolerate any and all bad behavior. There are parents who even make excuses for their indisciplined, pampered youths. They find excuses for their misbehavior, they teach the child that he or she is never at fault. Oh, he’s tired, he has a cold. He’s had hard day. Parents are pampering their children and this is really, really unhealthy. Dr. Ruth Velikovsky, psychologist and writer has said that modern-day examples of pampering include letting children get whatever they want just because they ask repeatedly. Today’s working mothers are often prone to these forms of pampering as attempts to compensate for being away from their youths during the day.

     National service, set up by our Malaysian government clearly proves that youths of today are pampered. Why is this so you ask? One of the main objectives of National Service is character building. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that this programme is crucial in helping to shape the future generation. Once Deputy Information Minister, Datuk Zainuddin Maidin has said that such exposure will help youths understand the difficulties encountered by the less privileged in rural areas. I quote, “This will help them in character building and developing compassion for the poor and downtrodden.” this clearly shows that our Malaysian government agrees and is aware that youths of today are being pampered. (A majority of them are pampered). This report was published in The Star paper.

     We live in an ‘instant’ society where neither youths nor children are encouraged to wait for things. Parents constantly indulge them to compensate for being out at work all day. Whatever a teenager wants, he can get. He no longer has to wait for it, or even work for it. They have all been laid out for them, right before them. Parents go out of their way to fill their children with physical needs. This goes on to say that youths of today are very much pampered.  

by Jillian Tan Sue-Im