Universally parents go without so that their kids can have a better life than we did. Our goal is to provide the opportunities for learning and education so that our children will ultimately succeed in their careers and life. We hope that the direction we show to our kids will help them evolve into a productive adult.

Here we are now the “Ostrich Generation!” An entire generation focused on putting our heads in the ground when it comes to our kids. We don’t remember our own “rites of passage” from our youth. The same challenges involving sex, drugs and alcohol.

Throughout generations peer pressure and social groups provide the backdrop under which kids must make their own way in the world. The temptations remain fundamentally constant while the children seen as angelic, friendly and socially balanced are assumed above the dark road. The high schooler who does what they are told and gets good grades are thought of in this light.

Our current world so interconnected with the texting, tweeting, facebook messaging and constant communication poses a whole new set of options and challenges. A nice evening with the family unit playing Yatzee is no longer on the agenda. This only increases the issues that contribute to the Ostrich Generation.

Now presenting my academically minded, sports loving, socially successful 17 year old. My youngest daughter, apple of my eye, my problem. No matter how many times I divulge the challenges and dangers I faced for my own rites of passage and how I navigated through these issues I find myself here. Everything revolves around trust.

The trust for my daughter is lost. It seems like a day cooking brownies and innocent fun turned into a pot laden confection that is now on the wrong side of the law. Under this haze the car ride home may have seemed prudent but only moved the right of passage from something unwise to something with the possibility of becoming downright deadly. For the last 17 years I have given my daughter trust and support to make her own decisions and now I find myself trying to grasp the fact that her upcoming decisions for university, love and jobs may be too advanced for her. I have my head out of the sand and I am looking squarely into the future.

To learn more about the “Ostrich Pandemic” and read more from this author visit www.collegematchingservice.com. College Matching Service provides a forum for working adults to learn more about college and other education options. Share your experiences and learn with others interested in college or parents of college bound students. You can also read the response to this article from the brownie maker herself.