Generation Next

Dec 30, 2011 Editorial

In the last decade, there is no question that the number of Guyanese joining the middle class has increased with tremendous rapidity. This was brought out quite dramatically during the just completed Christmas shopping frenzy. The number of stores that now stock quite upscale clothes, electronics, furniture, and all the other signifiers of middle-classdom, are now simply astounding – and they were all filled to abandon with enthusiastic shoppers.
As usual with the middle class, a significant portion of their budget is expended on their children: nowadays it is not unusual for children to flip out their blackberries with the greatest of nonchalance. And why not? They were purchased by their parents with even greater indifference. With education up to the secondary level free, another sign of the burgeoning middle class cosseting of their off-springs is their insistence on sending them to private schools. The latter are not surprisingly springing up like mushrooms. The irony, of course, that from the results of the national exams, none of them outperform the public schools.
This is just one more sign that accompanying the euphoria of their elevated status, there is an accompanying confusion as to exactly how the nouveau bourgeoisie should act vis a vis their children. It does not appear anyone has told them that along with prosperity comes a new set of rules, responsibilities and behavioural repertoires. Unfortunately, this combination of euphoria and confusion leaves in its wake, certain undesirable impacts, mostly having to do with family relationships, more specifically in the parent-child relationship.
This confusion is reflected in the manner many Guyanese parents scramble to get their parenting strategies right. Many have evidently given up and let the children go with the flow. But at the same time they all frequently lament, “What’s wrong with my children? We were never like that when we were their age.”
Then they go on to lambast the most convenient punching bag of the modern world – internet and television. But the problem the new Guyanese middle class faces has nothing to do with Guyanese values or the perceived loss of the same. Values are always under pressure from new environmental factors – they are not directed only at the young. Perhaps it is the environmental factors- the new material advantages, the new lifestyles and the expectations that flow from these that must be placed under scrutiny.
We have to recognise that as in the developed countries that are our models, to achieve middle class status, in most instances both parents in a home are now working. There is therefore a growing alienation from their children with whom they only interact for a couple of hours as they scramble to get dinner on the table. These parents then wonder why their children are “acting out” and ‘acting up” when they are “being given so much”. These parents confuse toys with affection, even as they now place great pressures on the children to achieve and excel in school or sports.
Let us take the achievement aspect. The parents who now consider themselves successful were motivated to strive for prosperity because this was what they wanted. They were willingly placing pressures on themselves. The tables are now turned. Their children now accept prosperity as a matter of course and are not as motivated to achieve more. In fact their disaffectation arising from the now distant parents fuels their resentment at being pressured. It is more than ironic that the children in the high-cost private schools with all their high-tech and even more hi-priced gadgets perform very mediocre.
In the coming new year, we exhort all Guyanese to spare a thought – in fact spare much thought – at how we are raising the next generation. We know that all the hard work is all for them but of what use is it when they place no value to it. We have to work just as hard to spend time with our children to solidify the bonds that make relatives into families. When all is said and done, when we are family, the material aspects are actually secondary.

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