Respect for adults

How Respect for Adults Is Good For Children’s Mental Health

According to this article by John Rosemond, the reason for the increase in teen depression cases and other mental health illnesses is not only a result of biochemical imbalance but also a lack of respect for adults.

The rise of child and teen depression since the 1960s is a result of a corresponding decline in respect for parents and other adult authority figures – one’s elders in general

Teach your children to think critically. Respect for adults

How Respect for Adults Is Good For Children’s Mental Health Click To Tweet

The problem began when progressives began demonizing all forms of traditional authority; in the military, church, workplace, classroom, and, most significantly, in the family. Mental health professionals rose up in one voice to proclaim that traditional parent authority wreaked havoc on the young psyche.

This fiction was the centrepiece of their campaign for the so-called “democratic” family. “Because I said so”; which is a mere affirmation of the legitimacy of the adult’s authority – was replaced with “What do you think, honey?” And the snowball began rolling downhill.

How respect for Adults is Good for Children’s Mental Health

Giving children power in relationships with adults weakens rather than strengthens them. As it erodes their sense of security, it increases their sense of vulnerability. As the feeling that adults can’t be relied upon grows, so does resentment and lack of respect. Defiance of adult authority is intoxicating to a child, but like all intoxicants, it is ultimately self-destructive.

2018 Top 10 Parenting Mistakes

Almost without exception, parents who describe depressed teens describe belligerent, disrespectful teens. Likewise, when these parents begin to calmly and purposefully reclaim their natural authority, their kids begin to get better.

Whether or not children develop respect for their parents and adult authority is entirely up to adults. It appears that respect for authority among youths has eroded because most adults no longer possess respect for their own authority.

Children NEED to have respect for adults, beginning with their parents. That requires adults who recognize that need and step unabashedly up to the plate when it comes to the attendant responsibility. Adult authority anchors a child’s sense of well-being in a world that is otherwise fraught with danger on every side.

Adult authority is the antidote to unpredictability. The message it will pass across is that; “You have nothing to worry about because I am taking care of essential business in your life until you can take care of it for yourself.”

Respect for adult authority on the part of a child is a good thing for his or her parents, but it’s an even better thing for the child.

Scroll to Top