The Lack of Independence in Today’s Youth
Essay title: The Lack of Independence in Today’s Youth
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating and destructive effect upon society than the others.” Laziness is in fact harmful in the long run. It leads to lack of dependency, which can cause drastic consequences to society. This is why solutions must be identified to solve the dilemma of dependency on others in today’s youth, particularly in the United Arab Emirates, where this problem prevails.
The question to address in reference to this topic is what caused the lack of independency in the UAE society’s youth? As a result of my observations and personal experiences, my general answer would be that Emarati parents have raised their kids to fully depend on anyone but themselves. I agree with this statement to the fullest extent because I believe that parents are role models to their children. The following quote affirms that, “Many children grow up slovenly and lazy because they’ve learned the patterns from their parents.” Laziness. Retrieved April 9 2007, from
Does the reliance of our youth on everyone but themselves guide them towards the responsibility and independency aimed at by their society? No. Parents in the U.A.E. are expected provide everything for their children, from allowances, which are received by the children with no contribution to the household on their behalf whatsoever, to the housing provided for them even after marriage, to the wanted goods and services given to them blindly with no bargain in terms of chores. Therefore, as one cause leads to the other, children have no incentive to work hard for what they want as everything is easily given to them on a silver platter. This leads to the average first job of a UAE national being after graduating from university, and not any time before. Statistics state that the aforementioned applies to more than 70% of today’s youth. Some would argue however, that this is an advantage, as a college degree would provide better job opportunities. That being said, I still think that individuals should gain at least some work experience before graduating from college.
To every action there is a reaction just like to every cause there is a consequence, which can be summarized by recognizing our useless society with an irresponsible new generation. No life experiences are gained by the UAE youth as they have not been put through situations where they were forced to work hard for a want or a need. This results in their live’s being all about luxuries and cash. Cole, a psychologist in the article “Should Parents Bail out their Adult Kids” by L. Weston, strongly debates her opinion on this issue in her rhetorical question, “will the money help your child eventually become more self sufficient? Or will it just lead to more requests