How much responsibility a child should take and whether modern children are less interested in performing their duties and obligations is debatable. While offspring in some countries still take many responsibilities, a great number of them, in other countries, are busy with their education and personal interests. I personally believe that the way children take responsibilities has changed over the time, mostly as a positive change, and to what extent a child should carry out these liabilities should be determined by the family and social condition.
To begin with, the social, economic and family structure in the past, in most of the developing and underdeveloped countries, forced parents to distribute responsibilities among children and it was common for many young children to work hard and take care of younger family members besides their education. These young children learnt how to manage budgets, share things with other family members and face difficulties in life. Those important lessons, according to many, are no longer spread among the modern young generation and thus they become more selfish.
However, with the change of the family structure and social norm, people these days want their children to excel in education and other creative fields rather than taking care of the family. Joint family predominated the society and parents had more children in the past. With the rise of the nuclear family and one-to-two-child-family policy, parents totally focus on a child's education, unlike the past. In my opinion, blaming children for not taking responsibilities is an impartial judgement as modern children have far more pressure from schools and parents. They are not expected to earn money or do house hold works in a well-to-do family. With the increasing literacy rates, less discrimination in a family, women empowerment and better lifestyle, the trend has more positive outcomes, without a doubt.
To conclude, these days we want our children to be the best scorer, best athlete, and outshine in everything they do unlike the past when parents wanted assistance from their offsprings to support the family. Thus the changes have brought numerous developments and the move was inevitable with the paradigm shift of the social structure.