Raising "Mini-me's.?

I was reading an article from my Smartmarriages email notes and came across one discussing how father's are portrayed on television. It's not pretty--right down to the dad on the Simpsons....dad's aren't getting much respect--they come across as buffoons or worse, completely dispensable items in a family. To be sure, not all of them--but the majority.

One sentence though jumped out at me
". . . And that's a problem, according to a new book by Washington Post columnist Diana West. In her work, titled "The Death of the Grown-Up," she writes that American fathers don't have sons anymore. They have "mini-me's." Dads and sons dress alike, play alike, eat alike -- even Cartoon Network viewing habits."

It made me really stop and think about it. Because it comes on the heels of a discussion I had last week with folks who work in the social services--folks from mental health counseling, adult probation, juvenile detention etc. They were complaining that one of the biggest problems they have is the 'lack of boundaries' of most of the adults that they work with--and that this trickles down onto their children (many of which these service providers end up working with).

So, when I merge the comment of "American fathers don't have sons any more. They have "mini-me's" with those in the helping professions acknowledging a lack of boundaries in most adults--I can see how/why we are raising "Mini-me's". Yikes...that's lots of folks stuck in the 0-5 reactive, unconscious story.