Kylie Lang: It’s time to tell kids to ‘suck it up, buttercup’

The aim of every generation is to improve the lot of the one coming next, but when some children can’t even catch the school bus things have gone too far, writes Kylie Lang.

IT’S on again – the great race, as parents exhibit a near pathological desire to drop their little darlings as close as possible to the school gates.

Heaven forbid, a child has to walk some distance, and don’t even consider public transport or a bicycle – what if it rains, it’s too hot, their bags are heavy, it takes longer?

I’m not surprised that governments are ramping up fines in school zones. This is no-brainer revenue raising in the age of helicopter parenting.

This year, councils will join police (who really have better things to do) in pinching motorists who hog two-minute zones, who double park trying to jag a space, and who block private driveways … great news for residents who’ve often complained to me about being unable to leave their own homes around 9am and 3pm on weekdays.

School drop off zones are fertile grounds for raising revenue.

Pedestrian crossings will be closely monitored so that they stay as intended – a safe pass – instead of danger strips where there’s every chance of ending up on the bonnet of a car.

It should never have come to this – there are bigger issues to focus on without micromanaging idiots.

But it has, and it is symptomatic of a wider problem: we are raising a generation of cottonwool kids.

Common sense is taking a back seat as adults go overboard trying to make life easy for children.

Think about it.

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Classrooms have to be airconditioned (though not as many as the State Government promised), kids do fewer household chores (even when money is dangled before them), and senior students are discouraged from having part-time jobs.

A teacher advised my son to quit his two, weekly shifts at the local IGA store so he could concentrate on years 11 and 12. In hindsight, I should have insisted that he keep the job, and improve his time management skills.

Many of us are so eager to help our kids in a world that seems increasingly competitive that we forget that there is more to learn from bumpy rides than smooth sailing.

Experiencing discomfort – a real life certainty – also makes comfort that much more appreciated when it happens, instead of comfort being expected as the norm.

How is the next generation going to learn resilience? Picture: Justin Lloyd

A friend tells me her sons’ school is actually considering scrapping Saturday cricket games in favour of night fixtures. And it’s not to spare parents eternal boredom on a perfectly good weekend; it’s because it’s too darn hot.

The same line was trotted out at the end of last year when schools cancelled swimming carnivals – that were never going to be held in the hottest part of the day anyway and, hello, swimming, in cold water, with undercover stands for spectators?

Admittedly, our summers can be sticky – 2019 was the hottest on record – with the Bureau of Meteorology also singling out 1972 and 1982 as particular scorchers.

It says Australia has “warmed by just over 1 degree since 1910, with most warming occurring since 1950”.

So it’s not just a recent thing, this heat that people now find so intolerable.

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However, indulging ourselves with luxuries certainly is.

I remember as a kid, we’d take turns in front of a mobile airconditioning unit – an ugly box on legs, dark brown, of course – or cool off under the hose. We’d sweat on those steamy 42 degree days, but we survived. Better yet, we thrived.

Class work was done, sport played and part-time jobs maintained, including for boys who mowed neighbourhood lawns (a rare sight these days).

Times change, I get that.

Every generation aims to improve the lot of the next, and there are some excellent new initiatives to protect kids from physical harm.

These include banning Under-7s Queensland rugby league players from tackling until they can learn how to do it properly.

Summer cricket during the day could be on the way out. Picture: David Smith/AAP

Ban “headers” in soccer next, I say, as the US has done for kids 10 and under, and stop scrambling young brains.

Such moves are not about making kids soft, but about acting on the greater knowledge we now have about risks and long-term injuries.

As adults, our chief role is to keep kids safe and healthy, and that is a very different ball game to exposing them to discomfort, inconvenience and regular opportunities to “suck it up, buttercup”.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail