Every summer I have the distinct pleasure of working at a local day camp. Kids from age 4 through 18 are out each week throughout the summer, enabling me some close encounters with the "youngin'" kind.
It's an experience I've had since my earliest days: I was once one of those very same children frolicking around through the city park, enjoying my youth by thinking the worst thing that could happen to me was missing my Saturday morning cartoons.
Youth is a time of innocence, and this annual experience is once that makes me miss it oh-so-well.
But times have changed for today's youth -- the trivial matters of our years no longer exist for today's wannabe-supermen and women. Instead, their problems are much worse.
At least 10 times a summer, I find myself in conversation with a child who wants to small talk about his plans for the coming evening, weekend or summer. I'm more than happy to listen and respond: that's what I'm there for... that's why I care.
However, since I started this position in some capacity back in the late '90s, I've noticed an increasing (and upsetting) trend in how the conversations end up.
Me: "So -- what are you going to be doing this weekend, now that it's Friday?"
Child: "Well, I'm going to call my friend and then go visit him...."
Keep in mind, at this age picking up the phone to call someone is a very big step... well, at least it used to be. I'm just waiting for one of my kids to whip out a cell phone and start programming numbers of his fellow classmates.
This, of course, only after having taking their picture with his camera phone and engaging in at least five minutes of active Harry Potter commentary.
Neglecting that, we move onward in conversation.
Child, continuing: "...then my dad is coming to pick me up and I'm going to his house for the weekend, then my mom's going to pick me up for Little League on Sunday after we visit my REAL grandpa's house, then next weekend my step-dad is picking me up to take me to my other grandpa's house.."
Me: [Gasp]
Quite honestly, most of these kids need a Microsoft Outlook calendar built into their head and their parent's minivans... but this is beside the point. Instead, the point here is: which parents?
Horrifically (and sadly) , many of these conversations inevitably end up with the child explaining to me his family life in terms of how many sets of parents, grandparents and siblings she has and how often she sees them.
As the years have counted up, so have the number of conversations each summer.
In other words: Divorce is becoming way too common.
Only years ago, divorce was considered a hellish ring of ropes, rings and hoops to jump through.
Today, it seems as easy as a high school prom break-up.
People no longer think before marriage, before having children and before they understand the full effects of the two when combined.
Our country is currently in uproar over social issues like abortion and gay marriage -- but if you ask me, we've still got bigger and older fish to fry.
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