Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Is there hope for this family?

The Hardcastle family in Las Vegas could easily be the family next door. The parents are hard-working professionals and their beloved daughter, Whitney, is a druggie without a future. Although she appears to be just another child of privilege, there would seem to be other factors in this situation.

Judge Gerald W. Hardcastle is a family court judge and deals with children who are neglected or abused, addicted or delinquent. His wife Kathy is the chief district judge of Clark County.

Their daughter brought a runaway boy home last year and the Hardcastles let him stay. The Hardcastles indulge their daughter with money, cars, a cellphone, nice clothing. They are waiting for her moment of clarity, the day she wakes up and they all laugh about this.

Read their story and see if you can spot where things really went wrong.

Children of adversity - children of privilege

Denny has written an insightful post, Silver Spoon's Bitter Aftertaste... which echoes some of the observations I made in Baby boomer children - what's wrong.

Denny mentioned his post in an earlier comment on this site, but it bears mentioning again, because of its relevance. You should read it. There are so many lessons to be learned from these unfortunate children of wealth. Be sure you read the comments on his post also.

Baby boomer children - what's wrong?

Jane Lubchansky Adams has written a disturbing article, The Kids Aren't All Right, about the privileged children of the Baby Boomer generation.

In the main, she seems to be speaking about the children of her peers, the upper middle-class children of college-educated parents. (She is a graduate of Smith College.)

She make some interesting observations about boomers:

Even the most idealistic baby boomers didn’t expect to achieve their career goals without a long apprenticeship and a lot of hard work. They didn’t feel entitled to a lifestyle marked by extended dependence, or expect to enjoy the same standard of living at 25 that their parents spent decades attaining. Baby boomers were eager for their independence, and by the time they had the responsibilities that come with it, they were (mostly) ready for them.

and their kids:

The truth is that some of those kids, who are in their twenties and thirties by now, are not all right. They’re failing to thrive. Despite having every constitutional and environmental advantage—including healthy minds and bodies and loving and intelligent parents—many of our children are not growing into the independent, generous, kind, happy, successful, law-abiding, contributing citizens we expected them to be.