This weekend we received a belated Christmas present – a trip to the “Axe Throwing” facility at a local family fun center.

If you are my age, the first thing axe throwing brings to mind is the “Ed Ames” incident on the Johnny Carson show:

Anyway, while waiting for our axe guide we watched a family at the nearby climbing wall. This is a 20-foot tall wooden wall with holes cut out so that kids can easily scale the wall. It includes safety cables so nobody risks falling, and is not even remotely challenging for an average kid.

This was a pretty typical American family, a single mom with four kids – two boys about 11 and 9, a toddler and a baby. The 9-year old had walked up the stairs to an adjacent apparatus and was hollering “Mama, I’m scared!” She told him to wait for his brother to climb the wall and help him. The pudgy 12-year old had clearly not climbed anything but a couch for many years. He was mystified by the challenge of putting a hand or foot in the next higher hole to get up the wall, nor did he have the strength or confidence to do so. “Mama, I can’t do this!”

My wife and I looked at each other, simultaneously thinking that our home-schooled grandson or granddaughter would scale that wall in three seconds flat, and then look for something more exciting to do.

It was a pathetic American vignette. Two young boys who had never been physically challenged, were totally out of shape, and had no confidence or ambition. They had clearly been coddled by a helicopter single mom and a school system that teaches them that they are victims and the most important thing in their lives is safety and risk-avoidance. I have no doubt that Critical Race Theory has held them down since they started in public school.

The sad thing is their future is not bright. Once out of mama’s protective reach, they will be overrun by the few capable and ambitious young men (and women) on the way up the ladder of success. Or worse, they will be actually victimized by tough young bad-asses.

That is exactly what our government wants and plans for these boys: more single-mom families, CRT in every institution, and a risk-averse cancel-culture that views self-reliance and confidence as hostile aggression. The implications of this cradle-to-grave government coddling are far-reaching and depressing.

We must stop the destruction of the nuclear family. Kids need dads who don’t allow them, especially the boys, to succumb to a life of wimp-hood. There will always be winners and losers, but the proportion is changing rapidly, and I guarantee the winners will have more fun.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side