My generation sometimes refers to themselves as "Dr. Spock babies"... referring to Dr. Benjamin Spock, who came out with the landmark book, "Baby And Child Care" in 1945. It was Dr. Spock who mentioned in his texts that it is not a sin to pick your baby up when it cries and show him/her some love. Previous texts asserted that discipline was the rule of the day.
What most likely resulted from Dr. Spock's contributions was a better relationship between parents and baby. Some may have been coddled more than others, but at least a natural bond was formed to where baby wouldn't have to be worried about abandonment, etc., in case the mood didn't feel right.
There are those who may argue that Dr. Spock's viewpoints contributed heavily to the politically correct mainstream. Just by looking around me, I can see where they may be correct, at times. Political correctness has resulted in a lawsuit-happy society: "You touch my kid, and I'll have every penny you own." As far as parental interaction with some children in that atmosphere, that's the only interaction there is, other than biological.
Some children are spoiled to the point of numbness. A perfect example is a recent news piece about a "child discipline option" on new vehicles. "Don't worry, it's not an ejector seat!", the reporter said. Turns out that such a seat would have been more heartwarming: it's just a shutoff switch for the vehicle entertainment system.
The whole purpose of a vehicle entertainment system is numbing, ranking along with laptop plug-ins, liberal cellphone use, and potential fax machine/printer hookups straight from your dashboard. It's ended up spoiling the adults as much as the kids. How many auto accidents are caused by driver distraction? Throw out all the drunk driving incidents; your remaining "avoidable" acccidents will still be a high number.
So if the children misbehave, you shut off the switch. Does the child learn the lesson fully? Especially if the parent turns it back on within five minutes because they might be missing something? Or do you pull over into a parking lot and discipline the child like they should be? By this, I also mean to disconnect the entertainment system at its source, the fuse box.
People are nervous at the up & coming generations because of the vast potential that they may not be able to fulfill. They seem to be detached from society, have no underlying respect for people (including their own parents), and get more defensive when a house, vehicle or such doesn't have all those fancy gizmos.
Regarding babies, Dr. Spock said: "Pick 'em up." He didn't say, "Plug 'em in."
