Deceived by their parents' flattery, today's teenagers believe they will rise to the top. They're in for a shock

by Alexander Chancellor

 

They are calling them the "smug generation". These are the children of American baby boomers who are inculcated by their parents with such faith in their own brilliance that they are shattered in later life to discover that they are not actually much good at anything.

It is, of course, impossible to get things right as a parent. In the old days, it was common, especially in America, for parents to assume the worst of their children and to believe that the only way to bring them success in life was to launch them unprotected upon the world to make their own way. Such parents would unquestioningly accept the verdict of schoolteachers on their children's abilities, however derogatory, and concur with enthusiasm in their efforts to discipline them. This could make children feel unloved and unappreciated.

Now, according to research by American psychologists, it is the other way round. Modern parents praise and flatter their children to such an extent that they believe they are the cat's whiskers and destined to rise effortlessly to the top of every tree. Teenagers today think they are bound to outshine their parents in all fields - as workers, spouses, and as parents themselves - and so succumb to depression when it turns out that they are fairly mediocre at everything.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/21/alexander-chancellor-teenagers-smug-generation