The Catastrophic Cult of Success

I recently had the opportunity to interview pediatrician and author Dr. Leonard Sax for an episode of our Youth Culture Matters podcast. Dr. Sax’s best-selling book is entitled The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups. In the book, Dr. Sax shares these timely and sobering words with parents: Why are American kids today so fragile? The fundamental reason is the breaking of the bonds across generations, so that kids now value the opinions of same-age peers or their own self-constructed self-concept more than they care about the good regard of their parents and other adults. The result is a cult of success, because success is the easiest way to impress your peers and yourself. But the cult of success just sets the kids up for catastrophe when failure arrives. And failure will come sooner or later. Thanks Dr. Sax, for reminding us of the need to facilitate strong intergenerational bonds for our kids, both in the home and in the church.