Lucy Zelic opinion: Parents, give your kids hope and don’t let them turn out like Greta
We may not be able to help our kids buy a house but we can do something about so many other issues, from porn to climate anxiety, and it could prevent the next Greta Thunberg, writes Lucy Zelic.
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Once upon a time it was considered a truism that in Australia at least every generation would have it better than the ones that came before.
That was certainly the case when my father came to Australia and literally managed to save up for a block of land in six weeks.
These days, not so much.
Sydney is the most unaffordable city for housing in the world according to one report this week, hope is dying out for many that they will ever have a slice of the Australian dream, parents are burnt out trying to keep food on the table, and to add insult to injury, we are making our kids worry sick about the end of the world.
I was thinking about this set of problems as I saw footage of Greta Thunberg as she as intercepted by Israeli forces after her “selfie yacht” was intercepted on its way to Gaza.
How on earth did Thunberg wind up there, of all places?
Before climate crusader Greta Thunberg rose to global prominence, she was a young school student, who used to play piano, laugh, and learn like most of her peers.
It wasn’t until her teachers decided to air a video on climate change, which showed vision of an island of plastic floating through the South Pacific, that she began to “spiral”.
According to her mother, Malena Ernman – a renowned opera signer – Greta couldn’t stop crying after watching the footage and it triggered sleepless nights, a refusal to eat, no more piano, laughter or talking.
Ernman later shared that it wasn’t until Greta found activism and began skipping school that the youngster felt better than she had in “many years.”
Ernman also revealed in the family’s 2020 memoir, that Greta was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
“Greta has a diagnosis,” Ernman wrote, “but it doesn’t rule out the fact that she’s right and the rest of us have got it all wrong.”
Pardon me?
What good could possibly come from affirming the belief that the world is about to explode, to your autistic child with obsessive compulsive disorder?
The answer is none.
And if that sounded judgmental, it was supposed to.
It’s time for parents to wake the hell up to the nonsense that our children are being told and taught, right under our noses.
It’s controversial to comment on other people’s style of parenting in the modern era, this much we know.
But, you’ll have to forgive me for thinking that encouraging a 15 year-old to address the United Nations Climate Action Summit, in which she argued that “people are dying” and “you have stolen my dreams and childhood” is emblematic of irresponsible parenting.
Watching footage of her being handed a sandwich by Israeli defence personnel, while she wore a green bucket hat with frog eyes and a smiley face on it, served as a sad reminder.
At 22 years-old, she’s still just a kid, who was given the wrong advice by people who should have known better.
By people who should have protected her.
The leftist media propped her up, and she was appropriated by the rabid climate opportunists who used her as a poster girl to advance their propaganda and fear mongering.
The outcome has given birth to a new ‘phenomenon’ called ‘climate anxiety’, with child and adolescent psychologist Clare Rowe reporting that there has been a worrying rise in anxiety and depression among children.
But, apocalyptic language around the planet aren’t the only issues our children are battling.
In the face of troubling youth crime statistics, the scourge of mental health problems, the distressing rates of teen suicide, it’s crystal clear that we’re failing our most vulnerable in society beyond the classrooms and the uncomfortable truth is, it starts at home.
A recent NSW Parliamentary inquiry revealed that children as young as six are accessing online pornography.
We may not be able to help our kids buy a house but surely we can do something about so many of these other problems?
The sad reality is, we exist in a world that frames parenting as an economic disadvantage and live under governments who have forced us to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet.
We’re distracted, tired and under pressure from every angle.
But, it’s time to put down the placards, place the phones in the cupboard and go back to the basics because our kids, and their futures, depend on us.
More than the climate, or the next social justice cause, ever will.
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Originally published as Lucy Zelic opinion: Parents, give your kids hope and don’t let them turn out like Greta
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