Comments (5)

Skip comments

1. Age limit on responsibility?

   This video shares inspirational stories of young people doing the right thing. It sends a wonderful message that responsibility has no age limit, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

   However, can we maintain this feel-good perspective on responsibility when it is applied to the other end of the spectrum- when young people instead choose to do the wrong thing? Our society says no.

   Young people who commit crimes are not held as RESPONSIBLE for their actions as an adult in our society. They are given lighter sentences and a chance to learn from their mistakes.

   Does this societal double-standard take away from the heart-warming stories in this video? Absolutely not. But it should open one’s eyes to the fact that not all ‘feel-good’ beliefs are as absolute as they may seem when incorporated in our society.

   • Ryan Littman-Quinn |
   • 1 month, 1 week ago

   Reply to this post |  Start a new comment

2. Age limit on responsibility

   In times of great stress, war for instances, it has not been uncommon, even here in the United States, for people who were very young at the time to be sent into battle. It is equally common for young people to simply choose to be responsible at a very young age. The norm is however a very different matter. What is probably more the rule than the exception is the 30 year old perpetual student still residing with their parents?

   I’d like to think that good example from a responsible parent will produce youngsters anxious to accept responsibility at a young age but I have to think that particular choice is based on the totality of input the child has received in their life, which brings us back to another discussion, that being informational overload.

   In the final analysis, I think we are all about what we experience at all stages of our life, especially as children. Does the axiom “Garbage in … garbage out” fit here? I think the best analogy I can come up with is the semi-permeable membrane we all studied in Biology. We experience the world as it is but we let into ourselves only what we choose.

   The only other comment I feel a need to make on this subject relates to the needy parent and the “parentification” of a youngster by that parent for the sake of that parent thus, in the worst case, robbing the youngster of their childhood.

   In short, while I enjoyed the film, especially the idea of caring deeply for needy kids, I simply express the caution that this is a multi dimensional issue and needs to be considered carefully.

   • Pasquale Bottiglieri |
   • 1 month ago

   Reply to this post |  Start a new comment

3. Easiest kind

   This is the easiest kind of responsibility because you have no choice and it is what you meant to do.

   • Lilli |
   • 3 weeks ago

   Reply to this post |  Start a new comment

   1. RE: Easiest kind

      In the final analysis

      If, at any age, a person senses and believes that they are answering to the call of their unique existence, and if they derive the comfort, satisfaction and sense of completeness that belief engenders, I have to say that the age that decision is made probably has little bearing.

      I don’t agree, at least not in our culturally diverse society, in mandating growth inhibiting role assignments at a young age, ie: selecting one child out of a family to be the parental care taker for the life of the parent, sometimes to the exclusion of marriage.

      If a person has choice and they knowingly choose to accept a responsibility which affects their life in some way, whether they are young or not, I think it might even be insulting to question it.

      • Pasquale Bottiglieri |
      • 3 weeks ago

      Reply to this post |  Start a new comment

4. If you want a responsible child, give him responsi

   I was given the responsibility of caring for my baby sister at a very early age (8 years old) and I did what was required of me because my parents had to go to work to take care of their seven children.

   I was not the oldest child, but I was the one that the baby bonded with and I cared for her with great joy. A week after my 13th birthday, I made a life-altering decision: I became a Christian and with that took on the role of a youth minister. Having worked as a youth minister since I was a teenager (I am now 50 years old) I have witnessed the full spectrum of responsibility and irresponsibility. Most of the young people who demonstrated responsibility at an early age were those who learned it from their parent(s).

   As the years progressed, I noticed a shift in a lot of our young people — it appeared they went from caring about others to caring only about themselves — not all, but most. These young people in the video have renewed my hope. I have 4 grandsons living with me and am teaching them responsibility at a very early age. They must clean their room every day — not because they want something, but because it is their responsibility to do so. The oldest one has to take the trash out every day. We’ve reached the point where we don’t have to ask him to do it — he automatically does it when he sees the trash bin is full. When they do ask us for something special, we sit with them and review their “account.” If they have been responsible for the majority of the time, they get the privilege they ask for; if not, then they don’t.

   Simple as that. I believe that if we want our children to be responsible, we must entrust them with responsibilities.

   • Margarita Morales |
   • 1 week, 2 days ago

   Reply to this post |  Start a new comment