Just a quick thought about something I heard today on the radio in regards to the unfolding drama about Notre Dame football player Manti Te’o. Several people on different shows said we should go easy on him because he is just a 22 year old kid, and therefore doesn’t know any better. Really?!?!
Since when did 22 year olds become like little kids? He certainly LOOKS like a man, all 220 pounds of him. He is graduating from a distinguished college in a few months, and yet our expectations for his maturity is that of a middle school boy instead of a man. I don’t think that is appropriate.
We have lowered the bar of expectations especially when it comes to young men, and it’s not serving them; it keeps them stuck in eternal adolescence. And then we wonder why they spend hours in our basements or their apartments playing inane video games and lack ambition.
See him as a man; treat him like a man; and maybe he will start acting like one.
Good point. Being 22 is not a blanket excuse for such errors in judgment–that or we are failing as parents.