Wiser or going in circles?

At the beginning of last century, the period in the time of a child's life called childhood did not exist. People like Tom Sawyer did not have a time in their life that they can reminisce as childhood. Kids at that time just grew fast, learnt as much and as fast as they could and matured fast, in time when they are physically developed to perform the duties of an adult. Nobody bothered, and it was not a problem, that their tender years are not paved with love, affection, comradeship and groupies. They did not become deranged psychopaths ala Norman Bates. Even as late as the 70s, nineteen year olds were donning military fatigues and marching to war. 

In the Eastern culture, children were to seen, not heard. The children were basically void of emotions and were just growing vessels who were supposed to be grateful to be born, fed and prepared for the future. 

Then came the modern way of bringing up children. These vessels suddenly had become sensitive fragile mimosa pudicas that became everything that their parents thought they would not become. And to top it all up, they squarely blame their parents for all their failures in life even though their lives were indeed a bed of roses as compared to their parents and the generations before them. 

The Asian parents took this idol worshiping of these little Napoleons one step further. China's one child policy, put these oversized pampered brats on pedestal, dancing to their every whim and fancy. Combined with the desire for their children to outdo their neighbours' child, their life essentially became centered around their offspring. Every effort was taken to shield them from eventualities and cushion their every fall. 

After all these years, on the contrary, the Francophile way of bringing up children dictates that they should be left to grow on their own like wildflowers, learning things as they go on. They should not be made the centre of attention but rather be let to learn the roles and duties as adult as the children's role is just assimilate into society as adults, nothing more. 

Hey, we have now gone a complete circle. We were doing it right all along only to be advised by experts that we were doing it wrong and suggested a new method which is actually a mirror image of our old ways. Ironic!

This is also true in other fields, our diet, for example. After steaming, broiling, grilling and frying our food all this while, some are now eating their food raw as our cavemen ancestors used too. 

Pet lovers are also feeding raw food to their loved one. My cat who has been consuming pellets of food all this while would get a shock of his life and run for his life if I were to throw a raw fish at him! Don't ask about catching mice, scaredy cat!