Let's agree on one thing: parenting can be really hard, and sometimes it helps to take some shortcuts or play around with some parenting life hacks.
But if you're going to take shortcuts, acknowledge that you took that shortcut. Don't blame your children for how you parented.
This was a recent hot take shared by TikToker Jacqueline, @jac.rose8 on the platform, who shut her parents up for blaming the next generation for the actions they'd taken to shut them up when they were kids.
Thanksgiving was over, and Jacqueline and her family were lounging in the garage, casually chatting when the Boomers around her, including her parents, started discussing the use of "participation trophies" in children's sports and other school activities.
Jacqueline reflected:
"I’m sitting in the garage post-Thanksgiving... so it’s me and six Boomers, my parents being two of them... And they started to talk about participation trophies."
"I heard them say, ‘Yeah, they’re all whiny and couldn’t handle competition, so they needed participation trophies.’"
"And I turned around and go, ‘But you gave us the participation trophies. We didn’t give them to ourselves. We received the participation trophies, but you were the givers.'"
When a relative argued that the kids would have "whined" when they didn't receive a trophy, Jacqueline continued:
"It’s the parents' job to teach the lesson about winning and losing... You didn’t want to do that, so you came up with participation trophies to shut us up, so you wouldn't have to talk about feelings and emotions."
"Silence in the room, and then my mom goes, ‘You know, I have to agree with her.’ And then her friends agreed, too. My dad tried to change the subject, but my mom wouldn’t let him off the hook."
You can watch the video here:
Fellow TikTokers agreed with Jacqueline's take, arguing that the kids were not the problem.
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Millennials in the comments pointed out that they rarely saw participation trophies and hated them when they did.
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No matter what an individual's opinion on participation trophies might be, let's recognize that the kids participating in the science fair, soccer team, and spelling bee did not ask for the trophies.
But because the coaches and hosts of these events did not want to deal with the children's disappointment when they lost, they incorporated participation trophies. And instead accepting responsibility, they blamed the children—and the whole generation to come.
When Gen-Xers and Millennials complain about being blamed for everything, this is a great example.
