This is probably gonna get me skewered, but I'm gonna say it anyway....
I can think back to when I was young and doctors routinely recommended kids have their tonsils removed if they had more than a couple of sore throats. Sore throat? Snip, snip, there ya go. All fixed. Then for some reason that treatment faded from popularity.
Later, when my children were young, a couple of bouts with an ear ache would surely result in "tubes" inserted in the kid's ear(s). Then, as quickly as that procedure gained favor, it faded.
Now we have dentists sending us junk mail and advertising on TV and radio telling us about all sorts of awful things that are churning in our mouth right this second, but fortunately, using their revolutionary new laser gun or whatever, they can cure it. Praise God!
Yes, I understand there are still real instances where tonsils need to be removed, ears need tubes inserted, and teeth need special treatment, but they are probably rare occurrences and not a one-size-fits-all fix.
This is the one I expect will get me skewered:
Grief counseling. It seems the news regularly reports horrible traffic accidents where kids were driving wild and crazy, or sadly, drinking, and they crash resulting in multiple fatalities. Immediately a team of "grief counselors" is dispatched to the kid's school in case any of the kid's classmates need help coping.
How did we or our parents or our kids survive without grief counselors? (Isn't that what ministers do?) Yes, I've had friends die suddenly or in some tragic accident, and somehow I accepted it, attended their funeral, celebrated their life, and moved on.
What does a grief counselor say? "I'm sorry your friend is gone. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. We don't know why. They just do." If they died doing something dumb (and all bullet-proof kids inevitably do dumb things), remind them this is what can happen. Learn from their friend. Life goes on.
I've never been to see a "grief counselor", and I might be totally wrong here, but it just seems to me like university psychology departments have invented a whole new speciality and reason to exist. I mean, let's be honest....there are only so many burgers psychology majors can flip.
I wonder if this is just another in a long line of "treatment's" we're being sold?
S
