Where have all the gentlemen gone?

Contentment is learned. It's a taught trait. In the early days of our childhood, when our parents and guardians learn to begin to draw limits and boundaries on how far we can go, how much we can eat, what we can and can't have, the concept of contentment begins to form in our little minds. But contentment is certainly learnt from just being told no. It is not just taught by highlighting the limits of our behavior, there is another major component of learning contentment.
It's learning to enjoy what we have. Yes, enjoying what you have.
It's funny we are taught to nag for what we don't have, but we rarely if ever, get taught how to enjoy and be thankful for the things we already have. The definition of being rich is not having plenty of money. It's having 2 of anything.
Parents are under constant and incessant pressure to buy the best toys, take their kids to the best schools, get the newest, latest and best there is and very few of them are a match to the growing demands from their children and the marketers.
The constant hogwash pushed down our throats by western media and sleek psychology that we need to provide our kids with the best lest they grow up with Low Self Esteem is an award winning marketing gimmick itself.
It's ruining the lives of a generation desperately in need of boundaries and limits.
It's ruining them because it does the exact thing parenting is not.
To make the child King.
That ladies and gentlemen is the problem in the hands of the new urban parent.
With weak willed and push over parents, we now have kids reigning as supreme beings demanding and having their whims catered to by frazzled parents trying to 'save their children from their own growing issues.'
Please! What madness is this?
I say let the kids have it!
They won't die! They won't lose self esteem! They won't become psycho's trying to get back at society for not wearing Prada. They will become normal kids. NORMAL like you did, since you didn't have it all on a platter.
The problem with kids having everything is we are breeding grown men and women that have no clue to what being told 'NO' means.
They are becoming a menace to anything that stands in their way to instant and quick gratification.
Traffic rules are for wimps, courtesy for the weak, and manners for poor souls.
No wonder now the ladies are asking what happened to gentlemen.
The gentle has been replaced with a self centered egotistical pursuit that has no regard for the weak, let alone the feminine. Because contentment hasn't been taught and still isn't being taught.
And we all stand to lose. And we are losing quite a bit. Self control is a lost virtue. Self control at home, in the work place, in traffic, and worst of all, in marriage and family. You see infidelity has been explained by many theories, many tales and conspiracies.
But if you look at it more realistically, people that choose to remain faithful in the face of temptation are not necessarily better people, stronger or even smarter. Well ok, maybe a little smarter.
But it's not just because they are superhuman, it's because they understand two primary things
One: In marriage, you better learn to be content and enjoy what you have. If you feel it's not what you deserve, work at it and invest in it. What's not yours will only bring you and others grief, and will never be better than what you got already.
Secondly: There is not just power but safety as well in saying no. What you can say no to, what you can walk away from at a moment’s notice will never rule over you. And men that govern their passions will triumph things that make oatmeal out of great men. Things like infidelity.
These two concepts are lacking in the weak men of today. The women are asking for real men that are not childish, and are only met with snickering stares and blank glares. The problem is partly fueled by the need of parents to give children what they want, when they want it and how they want it. We have to graduate to being more stable and sensible parents, employers, friends and mentors. If we can develop to teach contentment, and how those we have influence over can enjoy the things they already have, instead of chasing the new, we will have won a major battle.
Since I’m a father, I’m working hard at my 2 little ones. Until they learn to enjoy what I’ve already provided, they will not expect anything new. And unless they understand there are things they are not allowed to have or experience, life will be miserable for them. These two concepts form the foundation of developing contentment. Contentment is the secret to being happy and bringing others happiness in this world.
I refuse to raise up brats in the name of ‘well cared for’ kids. I refuse to be a weak willed father and parent who thinks saying no will kill my children. I have enough sense to know that in the near future, they will be eternally thankful that I never succumbed to the lie that would have turned them into foul, ill mannered, thankless social pests that are a pain you know where.
Will you join me?