Don't Blame The Children

You know we read in the papers

And we hear on the air

Of killing and stealing

And crime everywhere

And we sigh and we say

As we notice the trend

This young generation

Where will it end

But can we be sure

That it's their fault alone

I mean, that maybe a

Part of it isn't our own

Are we less guilty

Who place in their way

Too many things

That lead them astray

Like too much money to spend

And too much idle time

Too many movies

The kind of passion and crime

Too many books, man

That are not even fit to be read

Too much evil in what they hear said

And too many children

Encouraged to roam

By too many parents

Who won't even stay at home

(Don't blame it on the children)

Well, man, kids don't make the movies

And they don't write the books

And they don't go out

And paint gay pictures

Of gangsters and crooks

They don't make the liquor

And they don't run the bars

And they don't make the laws

And they don't buy the cars

They don't peddle junk that

Well, that addles the brain

That's all done by older folks, man

Greedy for gain

Delinquent teenagers, oh, man

How quick we do condemn

The sins of a nation

And then go and blame it on them

But the laws that are blameless

The Savior makes known

Now you tell me who is there

Among us to cast the first stone

For in so many cases

It's sad but it's true

That the title Delinquent

Fits older folks too

(Don't blame it on the children)

(Don't blame it on the children)

(Don't blame it on the children)