During the pandemic, I could not figure out why parents were not teaching their own children. Parents were home, off work, on lock-down, but they wanted their children in school. I had a feeling this was the most time that any of the complaining parents had ever spent with their children, and they did not like it, one little bit. Instead of teaching their kids, they wanted to spend their time on social media, decorating their homes, and baking bread.

It seems to me now, that not only have parents delegated their parenting role to teachers, they want to dictate how teachers raise their children. Just 10 years ago, when parents showed up at school board meetings, they brought their children with them. Today, the number of parents I see at school board meetings without their children in tow shocks me.

I suspect this bizarre parenting phenomenon explains the increasing rate of child suicides, depression, anxiety, loneliness and isolation – among other mental health and social problems. These kids are the canaries in the coal mine, warning us that parents are not parenting anymore.

Maybe I’m naïve, or overly optimistic, but it seems that the youngest generation of adults (generation Z?) are filling the parenting void for their peers. More and more often now, I see young people following each other. Just as parents showed up without their kids, their kids are showing up without their parents. That young people are turning away from their parents is sad, but not surprising.

Something went seriously wrong in the parenting world. I happen to think the problem is rooted in conservative think tanks that focused parents on politics at the expense of their own children.