BION - my wife and I were having this EXACT conversation recently - and it involved our 24 and 20 year old kids.
It's generational, we think. And we think it's our fault. And there's nothing we can do about it now.
Sometime between Dr. Spock and Windows 95, Buck Rogers became real. When that happened, most young people started to lose a very critical trait - interpersonal communication skills. Forget grammer - the electron boxes can't infer inflection, context, humility, facial expression, and other critically important parts of good communication skills. We gave our kids some tools, and took others away.
Despite our very best efforts, we failed miserably to REALLY impress upon them that the world is hard, it's not fair, and sometimes, people just don't get along. But there's real value in the art of agreeing to disagree. And much better yet, the admittance of ones' own fallibility. Like most of their generation, their skin is paper thin and especially for the older one, the chickens are starting to come to roost. She's remembering and learning the hard way. Soon, her brother will to.
So ride on, my brother Barry! In spite of yourself, I still like ya! If you feel you have to screw sheep, and even a few forum sheep-le, by all means have at it.
