“Listen to your father who gave you life,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
Buy truth, and do not sell it;
buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
Let your father and mother be glad;
let her who bore you rejoice.” [1]
Helicopter parents are a thing in this day. I suppose there have always been helicopter parents, but they appear to be rather prominent today. For those who have never heard the term, a helicopter parent is a parent who, like a helicopter, hovers overhead, overseeing their child’s life. The children are cloistered, protected from disappointment, kept from learning to inure themselves from hardship. They are sheltered from truth, and never allowed to fail. And even should they fail, the parents make excuses and refuse to face reality.
Examples of helicopter parenting abounds in the news items of the day. Parents regularly share videos on social media of brawls at children’s sporting events. For instance, adults began a fight following a pee-wee football game in Virginia. [2] In June of this past year, it was parents fighting at a twelve-and-under girls’ softball game. [3] In this current year, parents in Wisconsin initiated a fight at a youth wrestling match. [4] And these are just incidents from more recent days! Similar incidents are recorded each year, even on a weekly basis!
One needn’t appeal to sporting events to see evidence of helicopter parenting. One need but consider the response of parents in our own community to charges that a teacher called a child out for misbehaving. Parents who feel their child didn’t get a fair shake are increasingly notorious for interjecting themselves into the life of their children. Rather than seeing negative events are opportunities for teaching how to respond to life, we are witnessing the creation of a society marked by helicopter parents.
I understand that I’m a social dinosaur; I grew up in a different era. I was warned by my dad that if there was a problem at school and I was disciplined by one of my teachers, I could expect to face his wrath when I got home. He took the business of “in loco parentis” seriously; and if I dishonoured him, I would definitely face a “loco” parent.
As if helicopter parents weren’t a significant problem in their own right, now we’re hearing about “Lawnmower Parents.” Lawnmower parents are known for mowing down any challenges, discomforts and struggles a child may face. [5] Stories of Lawnmower Parents include,
• The parent of a high school student who asked a teacher to walk their student to class to assure that the student would not be late.
• A parent who requested someone from the cafeteria blow on their child’s too-hot lunch to cool it down.
• A parent who called to schedule a make-up test when the student was clearly old enough to request a time.
• A teacher called to the office, expecting to retrieve a student’s forgotten meal money or inhaler, but meeting a sheepish parent dropping off an expensive water bottle after repeated texts from the child. [6]
These are not situations in which a parent was willing to help a child succeed. These are examples of parents repeatedly seeking to eliminate every struggle from their children’s lives.
Parents are training children that they deserve an easy life that they didn’t earn. Parents appear to expect that their children need never face disappointment, need never fail. Let me give a couple of illustrations that point out what I’m speaking about. In West Virginia, parents sued a high school teach because their child received an “F” for failing to turn in a biology project on time. [7] A similar suit was filed because the student didn’t become class valedictorian due to a grade of “B” rather than an “A” for a biology project. [8] In Los Angeles, parents sued the school district because their daughter was not named valedictorian. [9] That same year, a parent sued another California school district because her son received a “C+” in a chemistry class. [10] Multiple illustrations could be provided to demonstrate this phenomenon.
On top of these outrageous stories, we were recently treated to accounts of parents who spent hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars to ensure that their children got into what are considered “top schools.” Over fifty people, including Hollywood celebrity parents, CFL football stars and the heads of major corporations, financial institutions and law firms paid to cheat on college entrance exams and to create artificial biographies to ensure that their children were accepted by these schools. These are not good parents—these are self-absorbed parents!
This is not normal! People have forgotten the entire point of raising children—imparting solid values and bringing up well-rounded members of society. As Karol Mackowicz has noted, “Parents have become morally bankrupt.” [11] We have been sold a lie in this day and in our culture. We appear to believe that our children must live Instagram-perfect lives so that the parents can brag about the accomplishments of their children. Parents no longer appear able to accept average children who excel in righteousness, who live honourably and who make a positive contribution to society though they may never stand out as someone with a million followers on Facebook. We want our children to be “influencers,” though the influence they wield does not lead to righteousness, to godliness, to goodness.
It is indeed a strange day. One evidence of the curious attitudes tolerated in this day in which we live is the observation of children who not only imagine they are wiser than the parents to whom God entrusted them, but educators fostering such juvenile delusions as they train children to believe that they are capable of directing their own lives without adult input. Increasingly, children are hearing the message first bellowed some years past by their own parents, “If it feels good, do it!” In the children of this day, we are witnessing the phenomenon of unparalleled ignorance meeting unbounded arrogance. A recent newspaper article began with this startling sentence: “This is way beyond talking out of turn—today’s public-school students are hellions who attack educators, shout X-rated bile and make bomb threats with impunity.” [12]
It is distressingly easy to provide additional evidence of the arrogance of children through appeal to even a cursory review of contemporary news. Such evidence is witnessed when addressing any of a number of issues of national interest. One need but consider the news account of a recent confrontation between children identified with the so-called Sunrise Movement and a United States Senator. [13] Another example of the arrogance of youth, apparently fostered by training throughout formative years, is provided through the multiple incidents of arrogance demonstrated by the Parkland children to verify this tragic situation. [14] Children today appear to have been trained to exaggerate their cognitive and emotional abilities.
Throughout the formative years, modern children are taught by educators who appear to hold advanced degrees in chutzpah rather than having been trained to be educators. Educators appear to believe they are responsible to teach children that their feelings will guide them, since that is how they were taught. Children are assured that they need not listen to their parents, as though these students have sufficient life experience to make necessary decisions. It is the nature of teenagers to be somewhat rebellious, imagining that they are far wiser than their parents; but youth is a time of blissful ignorance, a time of teetering on the edge of disaster because of their inexperience. As has been stated so often that it has become a linguistic meme, I marvel at how much my father learned between my years of thirteen and twenty-three.
Despite what has become an obvious trend witnessed in contemporary life, we who follow the Son of God must recognise the source of this spirit of rebellion. We who would honour the Lord must understand that our fallen nature leads us to rebel against order, whether in nature or even order in the realm of society. We must recognise that the modern tendency to claim that chaos is orderly grows out of our sinful nature and is itself sinful. In the Word of God, Christians are reminded, “God is not a God of disorder but of peace” [1 CORINTHIANS 14:33a CSB]. The very attitude of rebelling against the created order reveals the wicked nature of the unregenerate heart.
Though I could speak of the need for order in every facet of life, I believe it is important to encourage respect for parents, especially within the Christian family. Children raised in a Christian home must not be raised according to the standard of this fallen world. Though these children will still be responsible to give an accounting for their own lives as they reach the point of personal accountability before the Lord, parents who will honour the Lord God must accept responsibility to instruct their children in righteousness.
To be certain, children need to hear the biblical basis for showing their parents respect, and for accepting that they have responsibilities due to those whom God has placed over them. What may be missing from the instruction provided in the contemporary assembly is the fact that until our parents pass from this life, we still have responsibilities toward them. Until the end of days, a child is responsible to honour her father and her mother. Even after a child’s parents have passed from the scene, a young man or woman is responsible to honour their memory. What began in childhood will continue throughout life. Each of us will be responsible to honour our parents until they die and even beyond.
TRAINING YOUR CHILDREN — Earlier in the Proverbs, we read a proverb that affirms:
“Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
[PROVERBS 22:6]
Throughout the years of my service among the churches of our Lord, I have frequently cautioned those who sit under the teaching of the Word that this particular Proverb likely is not saying what many people assume it must be saying. It seems necessary for me to state this caution because the verse has so often been treated as though it is a sort of spiritual talisman.
People appear to imagine that if they recite this verse often enough, God will be compelled to ensure that their children will be kept from judgement. They seem to imagine that this verse serves as a sort of good luck charm that will ensure that the children can live as they wish, without restrictions, because they will always come back to the Faith. Parents appear to believe that if they train their children right, God is obligated to keep them safe. The parents sent them to Sunday School, recited prayers with them and even gave them a Bible story book.
I recall a phone call from a woman requesting that I baptise her children, both of whom were toddlers. We don’t baptise infants. On the authority of Scripture we understand that baptism is an ordinance intended for those of mature age who have exercised personal faith in Christ as Master over life. Nevertheless, I realised that her request provided opportunity to encourage this mother to provide sound, biblical instruction to her children. Therefore, I asked her why she would want to have her children baptised.
“Well,” she responded to my query, “I want them to be safe.”
As we spoke, it became apparent that she saw her responsibility as a mother was to keep her children from harm. She wanted to do whatever was necessary to protect them from evil. For that understanding, she was to be commended. According to her understanding of her role to do whatever is necessary to protect her children, she understood baptism to be a form of protection against divine judgement. Therefore, she wanted her children to be baptised. She was wrong in her understanding of what she should do; but she was nevertheless trying to be a good mother to the children God had given her.
“Where do you go to church?” I inquired, though I was certain I knew the answer before she even responded.
“Oh, I don’t go to church,” she replied. “I just want my children to be safe.”
I explained that her children were kept safe in Christ until they reached an age where they could understand personal responsibility. I pointed to Paul’s statement of Christ’s protection, “As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” [1 CORINTHIANS 15:22]. We are not judged on the basis of original sin; we are not held accountable for Adam’s sin. Christ Jesus, through His death on the cross, abolished the judgement for the sin of being born into the human race. Each individual bears responsibility for their own sin alone. We are not judged for the sin of our parents, and parents are not held to account for the sin of their children. Just as righteousness cannot be transmitted genetically, so sin cannot be transmitted genetically. Though Adam’s sin brought death, it does not condemn eternally.
This mother’s understanding of the ordinances was flawed, it was horribly distorted. However, she was no more in error than parents who do go to church and recite this proverb as though it is presenting a truth that will deliver their children from harm. Often, parents reciting this proverb are frustrated in their efforts to raise their children, failing to provide a godly environment in the home and failing to train their children in the Faith. Yet, they are hopeful that the children whom God has entrusted to their oversight will be kept from judgement.
I understand that parents do want their children to be safe. The desire for the welfare of our children extends to the Faith, but the Faith that is practised seems more frequently to be a nondescript longing rather than evidentiary as would be the case if it was based on God’s Word. Children are not kept spiritually safe through hopeful nostrums.
The proverb is not a blanket promise that a child raised in a Christian environment will always return to the Saviour, even after straying afield. Neither is this verse to be construed as a divine promise that if raised in a “Christian” home, children will be kept from ruining their lives because they opt to exalt their own desires over the will of God. This proverb states a general truth that character is being fixed during the formative years. What you permit your children to be during the formative years is what they are likely to be when they are adults. Parents are responsible to take a long view of life and raise their children accordingly.
The text for this day admonishes the young man the father is addressing:
“Listen to your father who gave you life,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
[PROVERBS 23:22]
It should be obvious that the father is concerned that the son to whom he is speaking will fulfil the Fifth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” [EXODUS 20:12]. He wants his son to recognise his youthful deficits, thus heeding the wisdom of his parents.
Incidentally, it should be obvious that the words attributed to the father are to be taken as applicable to all young people. Both sons and daughters need to hear what is written here. Perhaps more than ever, our children need to hear this particular command. Clearly, the father in this proverb is seeking to equip the young man for a good life. He wants his son to so live that he will be equipped to avoid disaster that always accompanies poor decisions, so that he will be equipped to sidestep self-immolation as he ventures through life.
This is a normal concern that parents have for their children. The father is motivated by love for his child, the welfare of his children looms large in a father’s responsibility. The father represented in this proverb has the same concerns every parent has for the children God has given to grace the home. It would be a very sick parent who had no desire to see his children succeed in life. Christian mothers want their sons and daughters to be godly, and all fathers want their children to be equipped to provide for their own needs in life. It is only in the most dysfunctional, the most aberrant situation that this would not be the case.
The father in the proverb is providing instruction intended to equip his son for life. Whether parents realise it or not, we are always teaching our children. Parents are obviously instructing their children through what they say, but the most effective teaching a parent does is through the manner in which the parent conducts himself or herself through life. Children learn far more through observing their parents as they navigate daily life than they learn through what is said. If the parents of a child act in a dishonourable, despicable manner, you may be assured that their children will learn how to be dishonourable and how to act despicably in their own lives. In fact, your children will gravitate to that which is dishonourable in your life rather than doing those things that you insist are right; children emulate what they see.
Recently, we witnessed the perversion of parental training when wealthy parents sought to assist their children to advance in the world. The college cheating scandal trapped numerous rich and famous families who were willing to cheat in order to get their offspring admitted to prestigious schools. They demonstrated the wicked idea that the degree was worth more than the knowledge. Unfortunately, in today’s world, the school you attended does carry more weight than whether or not you possess knowledge of how to conduct yourself in the world. The reputation of one’s family carries more weight than whether a person has character. This should not be; unfortunately, it has become the reality.
The New Testament continues in presenting the identical theme of the necessity of instructing our children in righteousness. One example that promotes this claim is Paul’s admonition, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” [EPHESIANS 6:4]. This particular verse echoes what the Apostle has written in his Letter to the Assembly in Colossae. There, you will recall that Paul has written, “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged” [COLOSSIANS 3:21].
To be certain, these two passages from the pen of the Apostle directly address fathers, but it should be obvious that parents are under scrutiny by what is written. I acknowledge that fathers bear an awesome responsibility for raising godly children; but we live in a day in which an increasing number of homes are dependent on the guidance provided by a single parent, including mothers. Hence, the universal implication of what is written.
Though it is Mothers’ Day, it is appropriate for each of us to focus on being wise as a parent, after all, mothers are parents also. The proverb before us impels me to speak more broadly than to mothers alone. Thus, I speak to both fathers and mothers, urging them to heed what is written in the Word of God concerning to provide counsel and instruction to children.
SOUND COUNSEL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE —
“Buy truth, and do not sell it;
buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.”
[PROVERBS 23:23]
The proverb provides sound counsel for anyone, but it is especially important for young people to heed what is taught in the proverb. The wise man is providing a statement marked by divine wisdom that will keep a youth from serious injury if the wisdom is heeded. Simply stated, the counsel provided is to pursue truth. Do whatever is necessary to gain wisdom. Obtain all the instruction that leads to truth and wisdom that you are able to get. With all your getting, get understanding. Perhaps we imagine that we know what is meant by the terms “truth,” “wisdom,” “instruction” and “understanding.” However, in order to ensure that we are on common ground, let’s think about these terms.
Among the distortions of our modern age is the confusion of knowledge with wisdom. We seem to think that the acquisition of knowledge is sufficient to equip us for life. I well remember a saying that was uttered frequently by one southern preacher that challenged this view. He often said, “I’d rather learn my ABCs in heaven than spout Hebrew and Greek in hell.” That is a true statement. It is assuredly a sound statement that will serve to guide an individual as he or she moves through the days of this life. This takes us back to Jesus incisive question, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul” [MARK 8:36]?
Throughout life we meet people who have acquired great knowledge, who are yet fools. They seem incapable of thinking clearly, focused on what gives them immediate pleasure rather than focusing on how to make a better society. They are more concerned with satisfying their immediate desires instead of seeking what honours God. They cannot seem to move beyond sacrificing the permanent on the altar of the temporary. Don’t be that person.
We live in a day in which “feelings” are exalted. However, youth are not particularly recognised for their wisdom. After all, they have no experience! Among the Proverbs are a couple of gems that remind us of the strength of age. Here’s one of those Proverbs.
“Gray hair is a crown of glory;
it is gained in a righteous life.”
[PROVERBS 16:31]
Here is another Proverb that should make an impression on the righteous person.
“The glory of young men is their strength,
but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.”
[PROVERBS 20:29]
There are no short-cuts for obtaining wisdom. I’m not suggesting that the elderly are infallibly wise—indeed, some can act like fools! I am suggesting that those who have lived longer than you will have witnessed things that could not be anticipated when we were younger. Youth is a wonderful age; it is a shame it is wasted on the young.
The Psalmist has a beautiful statement on how we are to respect the aged. He writes,
“O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
Your righteousness, O God,
reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?
You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
you will bring me up again.”
[PSALM 71:17-20]
The elderly, especially those who have walked long years with the LORD, are given the charge to tell the generations that follow of God’s power. They’ve witnessed that power; they can speak with authority of His power. God’s power is theory for the young; His might has been experienced by the elderly. The elderly have seen troubles and calamities, and they’ve witnessed God’s power and grace that revives the weary soul. They have greater stamina than the young can imagine. This is the reason for the command, “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD” [LEVITICUS 19:32].
Youth need to be taught that there is a vast difference between being able to programme an I-Phone and possessing wisdom. The greater our ability to communicate our every thought, the less we have to say. Long years ago, when telegraph lines first connected the American States, Thoreau wrote, “We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Main to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.”
There is a reason why democratic societies restrict voting to those who have reached an age that permits them to make decisions that are based on more than mere feelings. Perhaps a socialistic politician will advocate for children making decisions, but she does so only because she knows the elite are in charge and she is confident that the emotions of the young can be manipulated for the purposes of the powerful. There is a reason why certain activities are restricted to those below a minimum age. The reason for such restrictions is because youth are susceptible to being unduly influenced by their feelings. They can’t possibly have the experience necessary to avoid pitfalls. When the Lord wanted to show His ancient people the depths of humiliation that would soon be imposed upon them, He spoke through His prophet.
“I will make boys their princes,
and infants shall rule over them.
And the people will oppress one another,
every one his fellow
and every one his neighbor;
the youth will be insolent to the elder,
and the despised to the honorable.”
[ISAIAH 3:4-5]
In recent days, I’ve watched politicians in the United States argue that we should allow youths as young as sixteen to vote. Many of those same people arguing that these youths are politically astute and aware of how the world works, simultaneously seek to protect them. Though we encourage these youths to make their voices known in the political arena, we must not allow anyone to speak against their ideals because it may trigger them. Yet, youths can’t enter into marriage without permission from their parents—a most sensible restriction. Youths are not permitted to purchase and drink alcohol because we understand their susceptibility to peer pressure and we also know that brain development is incomplete. My point is that if there are restrictions because of a lack of understanding and a paucity of experience, why would we want them to have a say in the direction of the nation? It has been said, quite correctly, I believe, that if you are not a socialist at age eighteen, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative by age thirty, you have no brain. There is wisdom in that. I’m not speaking solely from a political point of view, but I am pointing out some significant generalities that do bear on our study today.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO YOUR PARENTS —
“The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;
he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
Let your father and mother be glad;
let her who bore you rejoice.”
[PROVERBS 23:24-25]
We now come to the heart of the message as I ask each of us to consider the responsibility that we owe the parents to whom the Lord entrusted us. Of course, it would be easy to say that the requirement for a child to respect his or her parents applies to youths still living in the home—and the proverb assuredly does apply to children in the home! However, even after we have left the safety of our natal home, we are each responsible to honour our parents. There is no qualifying aspects provided for what is written in Scripture.
Until the day our parents die, we are each responsible before God to honour our parents. These are our parents, the man and the women to whom our existence was entrusted by a gracious and loving God. I’ll go so far as to suggest that we are responsible to honour their memory even after they are gone! I am not advocating worship of ancestors, as is practised within some cultures in our world. Neither am I speaking of some modified form of ancestor worship, such as prayer to those who have gone before us. I am speaking of honouring the memory of our parents even after they are dead. I am speaking of being respectful to their memories. I am suggesting the need to be modest in our estimate of those who parented us. I am suggesting that we owe them care and consideration even down to old age.
I know that for some it is difficult even to think of honouring their parents. I make this statement with a measure of personal understanding. As you who have heard me speak for any length of time will know, my mother deserted her family when I was but a lad five years of age. I did not have the advantage of growing up with a mother such as most of you have had. My mother chose her own passions over the vows she made before the Lord. She chose love for herself over love for her sons. Though she may have regretted her choice in later years, her regret can never give back what was never there for her sons. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a child raised under such conditions to honour a decision such as that.
Nevertheless, despite this hard start in my life, my dad raised his sons to honour their mother as the woman who gave them life—and I’m glad he did. I don’t love my mother as one who sacrificed for me, but I choose to respect her for choosing life for me rather than choosing, as so many are urged to do in this day, to kill me in the womb. I praise God that He gave me a dad who loved Christ and who feared God. I am so grateful that my dad was a man of the Word and that he instilled in me a respect for the Word of the Lord. As part of that respect for God’s Word, he always pointed his sons to what was written, and that included honouring the woman who bore us for giving us life.
I learned later in life the reality of the divine promise.
“When my father and my mother forsake me,
Then the LORD will take care of me.”
[PSALM 27:10 NKJV]
Though my dad sacrificed for the welfare of his sons, I now something about rejection. Some of you to whom I’m speaking at this time know something about rejection. The pain cannot be sugar-coated, whether it is a father consumed by his own perverted desires or whether it is a mother who give up everyone that should be dear in order to get her own way, desertion leaves injured, hurting people in the wake.
Isaiah asks a penetrating question, and in asking provides a message of hope. He asks,
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.”
[ISAIAH 49:15]
It seems almost unbelievable to think that a woman can forget her nursing child. Yet, we know that this happens. As I’ve mentioned, there are some who could testify that such is indeed possible. Here is the wonderful news even in the face of such darkness—the LORD does not forget. The Living God knows His own. God speaks through His prophet to make a wonderfully comforting statement in the verse that follows that which I just read. God says,
“Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”
[ISAIAH 49:16a]
God dotes on His children. Though the world may neglect you, though even your family may treat you with contempt, when you are born from above and into the Family of God, you have a Father who cannot forget His child. You are a child of the King, and you have access to Him at all times. Now, that is a message that should cause each of us to rejoice with wild abandon! God loves His child! How amazing is that! Do you remember singing,
Jesus loves me! This I know,
For the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.
Jesus loves me! He who died
Heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let His little child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.
We do a disservice to this wonderful truth when we relegate this song to children only. The love of God calls us to faith in the Son of God. Perhaps you will recall Jesus’ teaching that “The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” [JOHN 16:27]. Our relationship as followers of the Christ is a relationship built on love. We are loved by the Father because we love the Son. The Son loved us and gave Himself for us, just as the Apostle has testified, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” [GALATIANS 2:20]. Therefore, we respond to the love of Christ the Lord.
The question that must be asked of each one who hears me this day is whether you know this divine love of which I speak. I am not asking if you about the love of God, I’m asking if you are the recipient of His love. I’m not asking whether you recognise the theoretical love of God; I’m asking whether you know the love of God through personal experience. Have you received the love of God in Christ the Lord through faith in Him as the sacrifice for your sin? Let Christ be glorified. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers, 2001. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Jason Owens, “Pee Wee football handshake line escalates into brawl amongst angry men,” Oct 2, 2018, Yahoo! Sports, https://sports.yahoo.com/pee-wee-football-handshake-line-escalates-brawl-amongst-angry-men-034754633.html, accessed 17 March 2019
[3] Robert Rhoden, “Watch parents brawl at girls softball tournament in Tennessee: report,” NOLA.com & The Times-Picayune, https://www.nola.com/sports/2018/06/watch_parents_brawl_at_girls_s.html, accessed 17 March 2019
[4] Cass Anderson, “Youth Wrestling Tournament in Wisconsin Erupts Into All-Out Brawl Between Furious Parents,” brobible, https://brobible.com/sports/article/wrestling-fight-kimberly-wisconsin-parents-brawl/, accessed 17 March 2019; Chris Mueller, “Three people given citations after fight at Kimberly youth wrestling tournament,” Feb 14, 2019, https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/2019/02/14/kimberly-wrestling-three-women-given-citations-after-fight-tournament/2872059002/, accessed 17 March 2019
[5] See James Emery White, “Lawnmower Parents and Snowflake Spirituality,” Church & Culture, September 27, 2018, https://www.churchandculture.org/blog/2018/9/27/lawnmower-parents-and-snowflake-spirituality, accessed 30 April 2019
[6] Ibid.
[7] “Parent Sues School over Student’s Poor Grade,” March 13, 2007, NPR, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8278150, accessed 17 March 2019
[8] “Failed Valedictorian Sues Teacher Over Bad Grade,” May 20, 2007, http://loweringthebar.net/2007/05/failed_valedict.html, accessed 17 March 2019
[9] Beth Stebner, “Parents set to SUE school after their Ivy League-bound daughter was ‘robbed’ of being valedictorian,” Daily Mail, 22 June 2012, UPDATED 23 June 2012, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2163446/Parents-SUE-school-robbed-daughter-Elisha-Marquez-valedictorian-status.html, accessed 17 March 2019; Dan Riehl, “Parents to sue LA Unified School District for not naming daughter valedictorian, Breitbart, 25 June 2012, https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2012/06/25/parents-to-sue-la-unified-school-district-for-not-naming-daughter-valedictorian/, accessed 17 March 2019
[10] Katie Kindelan, “Calif. Student Sues Teacher, District Over C+ Grade, ABC News, July 26, 2012, https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/07/calif-student-sues-teacher-district-over-c-grade/, accessed 17 March 2019
[11] Karol Markowicz, “America’s parents have become morally bankrupt,” N Y Post, March 16, 2019, https://nypost.com/2019/03/16/americas-parents-have-become-morally-bankrupt/, accessed 17 March 2019
[12] Staff Report, “NYC teachers speak out about their horrific experiences in class,” Yahoo! Sports, March 7, 2019, https://nypost.com/2019/03/07/nyc-teachers-speak-out-about-their-horrific-experiences-in-class/, accessed 8 March 2019
[13] Christal Haynes, “‘I know what I’m doing.’: Video shows Sen. Dianne Feinstein arguing with kids on climate bill,” USA Today, Feb 22, 2019, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/22/dianne-feinstein-criticized-arguing-kids-over-green-new-deal/2956607002/, accessed 1 March 2019
[14] E.g., Tim Haine, “David Hogg: ‘Our Parents Don’t Know How to Use A F*cking Democracy, So We Have To,’” Real Clear Politics, March 23, 2018, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/03/23/david_hogg_our_parents_dont_know_how_to_use_a_fcking_democracy_so_we_have_to.html, accessed 1 March 2019
