Children have always been known as the nicest and warmest beings in the world. However, that concept may have to change in the coming years. A new study from the United States has shockingly shown that little kids these days are getting meaner, and what's even more surprising is that parents may be the one to blame.
NBC News surveyed 2,600 people on the kindness people show, and found that 62 percent of the participants think that children these days are not as kind as they were. The survey also revealed that 77percent of the respondents believes that the lack of kindness by children may be because of moms and dads.
The same survey also revealed that when talking about the values being taught to children, American parents don't really emphasize kindness. They put values such as honesty, courage, leadership and strong work ethic first before kindness. And that alone can be a surprising result.
A psychology lecturer at Harvard University, Richard Weissbourd, heads the Making Caring Common project which aims to improve how people look at kindness. He also said that he is no longer surprised by the survey's results.
He told Yahoo Parenting that children these days tend to think that other kids their age are not as kind and respectful as they are, only because their parents do, too. Overvaluing ourselves or not being aware of our shortcomings, while being overly aware of the mistakes of others, is not common.
He also noticed that the media has also influenced children to be unkind by the things they see on TV, from bullying and sexual harassment to school shootings, these are the kind of things that can taint the children's belief in kindness and our belief that young people are essentially good.
To make matters worse, Weissbourd pointed out that those who participated in the survey claimed that children are not as kind as they used to be, ranked kindness lower than he expected them to, on the list of values to teach them. He added by saying that that alone sends a very powerful message.
