The generation these days

[Aeni]

I was having a nice discussion over lunch with a few co-workers several weeks back and that discussion has since bothered me.

One of the gals was talking about her recent trip to San Diego and how that reunion with her family went (She left SD when she was 17 and went back for the first time in 6 years to see her mom, step-dad and half-sister)

Somehow, the discussion focused on her half-sister's cousin. The girls are about 12-13 years of age. My co-worker was telling us a story about how the girls, although cousin, seem to bear physical appearances to long lost twins. However, their attitude and thinking were totally opposite each other. Basically, my co-worker portrayed her own half-sister as "white" and the half-sister's cousin as "black." (No racial overtones suggested or intended)

Probably biased, maybe.

Anyway, she was talking about how this cousin seems to be a loud-mouthed and obnxious brat and have a way of getting under people's skin. But that's not all there is to it...

This girl was purported to say things like, "I can't wait until I can 'shave' down there and wear thongs." Okay...

Not sure about everyone's experience here, but is this typical of young American teenagers everywhere? What is going on? That kind of thinking a generation or two ago would have the parent slap that mouth right off of the kid's face. Now, kids are getting older even sooner than ever before and innoncence is being shedded at an alarming rate.

What's going on in our society today?

[DakAttack]

Re: The generation these days

It's sad when you think about it, but sooner or later further generations will look back at the poor example kids these days are making and they'll learn a lot from it. Kids these days don't understand the consequences of their actions until it's too late, but once those consequences occur it can be used as a deterant for later generations.

From what I understand, these days kids don't plan for a life after high school. Of course some of them do, and few have an idea of what they'd like to do, but most of them don't even plan for tomorrow or can even remember what they did yesterday. They're trading fourty+ years of prosperity for four years of fun. To them I say "Enjoy your welfare".

I'll have a military academy's brochure posted on my fridge by the time they're in middle school as a constant reminder of where they'll be if they screw up even once.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: The generation these days

One of the things that really bothers me about the pre-teen and early teens now is that the media influence of sex is really a HUGE influence. Have you seen some of the clothes on the market for these girls? Thongs are the norm! The clothes look like mini versions of the clothes that adult women wear when they go out for a night on the town! Very revealing and very sexy. While I don't have a child in this age bracket, I've seen the clothes they wear on my sister. She's only 90 lbs and 4' 8" tall so she shops in their section. She's so happy with the clothes she has to choose from now because in the past she had to alter many of them to make them look more adult. I just look at some of her outfits and say "My God that was in the kids section!!!?"

Now its up to the parents to influence their childrens dressing habits and its obvious that parents are really dropping the ball. Yes kids have a mind of their own but if you bring your kids up correctly right from the start, you will have much less of an issue when something like this crops up. Parents slack off for years and then when stuff like this pops up they decide to have a say in it and then try to raise their kids correctly. Guess what? TOO DANG LATE PEOPLE! The majority of kids wouldn't act like they do if their parents had taken an interest in their lives and make a concentrated effort to raise their child correctly. There are a whole lot of parents out there that I would just like to shake and say WAKE UP!!!

[PotentPotables]

Re: The generation these days

I can tell you the problem from personal experience with other parents and their children. the problem with today's children are their parents. Not going to gloat, but my 2 1/2 children are well mannered, well groomed, and well spoken, as well as responsible for their own actions and property.

I've seen alot parents, being in the military, that borderline ignore their children from the time they wake up to the time they goto sleep... if a bedtime is even set for them. On a daily basis, I have 2-4 yr olds running around the neighborhhod playing at the playground, in the street, etc. without ANY supervision!
Once the kids get older, they start to want to do things on their own. Then, because the parents are older and probably more mature, they want to take a part in their kids life...

IT IS TOO LATE TO TAKE PART IN YOUR CHILDS LIFE IF YOU HAVE ALREADY LET THEM GROW UP BY THEMSELVES!

Parents need to take an active role in everything in their child's life. From what kind of toys and cartoons they like [and why] to how they should act in public and interact with other people. Quite honestly, most parents today make me sick and I would galdly choke them for hours rather than their kids.

[Sanim]

Re: The generation these days

"The clothes look like mini versions of the clothes that adult women wear when they go out for a night on the town!"

lol, so true..

In any case, this is a international phenomenom (sp?), Spanish teens are like that too (and worse).

[Kagerou]

Re: The generation these days

Yeah, things like that goes on almost everywhere (industrialized countries most likely). Of course, what you got could be just a exaggeration.

[Jarre]

Re: The generation these days - Some meaningfull true comments

Trying not to sound an old fart at 26 lol, you are right it is like this in the uk.

Kids this day have no respect for anyone. for instance in the Uk look at the amount of school stabbings we have now they are on the rise, now I know in the US you have many problems with shootingsa nd the like, but here in the Uk this kind of violence was unheard of. In the Uk gangs of teenagers are now moping the streets and are more violent towards people. As a fireman we attend many incidents started by kids and teenagers, and on occasions whilst trying to put out a fire we have been stoned and even had a brick through our fire applaicne window, we now have CCTV cameras in and on the fire engine to try and capture the culprits.

In the uk there is now a craze among certain aspects of kid and teenagers lives becuse they are bored called "Happy slapping" where a gang (this is the one that got on the news) kicked a male rider off his bike and started beating the crap out of him, while one person filmed it on their mobile (we have video mobiles here in the uk) the guy nearly ied becasue of his beating with severe head injuries and they distributed to their "mates" this video shoing there "acheivement".

I was int eh bus station 3 weeks ago and heard a 5 year old tell and old women to F off, I can tell you I was shocked. Half the problem is the aprents just don't care or just don't want to know, there is all this about broken families and poor families and the comments that i have heard "there just being streetwise" (beleive me it raised my eyebrow hearing what kids think as part of a community safety lecture we had to do)

Now I know alot of members here in this forum fall into this age group and may be saying shut the F up your old git, but that just proves my point. The world today is different then it as then and has become a more agressive and hostile place, your generation and mine needs to sort this out or we will all be living in hell.

I say this with good experience, one fo my fellow firefighters suffered major laserations to his face when teh brick went through the window. The kids parents said that "he would never do a thing like that" He got let off with a slap on the wrist because he was only 12. The same kid torched a manure heap that 15 fire crews including ourselves spent 28 hours dealing with, this let our countys fire cover be very low and 3 people died due to a fire engine not being able to respond quick enough.

You may say thats an isolated case. well i'm sorry to say it ain't this is the situation int eh Uk and its getting worse and I doubt you could deny anything like this happening aroudn teh world because you will be wrong.

For this generation please head my words. sort it out or it will only get worse in the future, how would you like your kids to be bought up in a more violent world than we are already in??

[Balfree]

Re: The generation these days

I'm 20, i have a 13 year old sister and a 25 yeard old brother,

I am SHOCKED at some things my sister does... and our generation isnt that much far appart either, however we are so different, and sometimes it enrages me to the point of having arguments with my parents for letting her de-rail so, ending up to a nice "that's none of your business!" punchline that just makes me wanna throw up.

I was raised by my grandparents, where i got from 1-4th class, thats a very important phase of a kid's life, it's where you learn your manners and habits that make you an individual different than everyone else, i feel i was raised by the right people and in the right place, seeing as both my brother and sister who were raised by my parents are very different from me, one used to be a drug addict dude who wanted to live off of his drums, until eventually he got a grip and realised living in the garage wasnt the life he wanted, and now my sister who is irresponsible and illmannered towards her parents more often than not, me i pride myself for allways being humble, honest and sacrificing, maybe you see that as boasting, i see it as regular behaviour anyone should have, im very grateful i was raised by my grandparents.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: The generation these days

Balfree, your one lucky young man! Your grandparents loved you so much that they took the time to teach you and give you boundaries that will always help you in your adult life. I'm sure they are very proud of you!

[Balfree]

Re: The generation these days

It's hard sometimes though, people calling you the "special" one, like i came from another planet -.- those days are over though, but when i had to move in with my parents, i hated it, it was a totally different thing and all i did was cry about my grandaddy and the things i loved to do with him on summer holidays.

And the food my grandmother made with her trusty set of antique cooking utensils that hung over the stove and whenever i came back from school the wind coming from the outside would make the tools clung against eachother announcing my arrival which would be complete with my lunch waiting for me on the same kitchen she still makes the raisin bread i love so much on...

O those were the days indeed ; ;

[WINGxx]

Re: The generation these days

im gonna b brave now im a 16 year old kid in uk and ill admit that uk is bad and that iv done stupid stuff and that was wen i was 14/15 and lower and i know your probley thinkin im just a stupid kid and dont know wot im on about but i agree with you all completly my genartion is very bad iv leraned from my mistakes and try to live a better life now but sometimes its worse than i think like the other day when i was out with my friends and some 10-12 year olds started calling us and throwing bricks at us from the construction site nearby thats when i relised the sort of idiots that give my genaration the reputation we have

[Jarre]

Re: The generation these days

Nice to see someone who actually noitices it, my day job is an architect, so I know all the problems from kids on construction sites. My evening time is as a part time firefighter (retained as were known). although i have only been in the service for 2 years now, I have seen so much to back up this argument.

4 months ago we attended a serious 4 foxtrot accident (foxtrot is our terminoligy for a fatal person) They were 4 kids in the car, ages 14, 12, 9 and 6. The 12 year old had been driving and was being persued by the police before loosing control of the vehicle and crashing into a deep ditch, the parents had let their kids stay out on a school night and thought they were just "Hanging around the park". They would not believe their kids would do such thing. That phrase again, if only parents realsied what their kids do these days. We had the nasty task of spending 3 hours cutting their bodies from the car, not something you want to have to do, but unforunately the ge of drivers were cutting free from fatals are getting younger, and i mean under age for driving.

About Thegrandmom's comments about kids clothes. A man has just been jailed for 5 years for sexual assult on a 12 year old. He had picked her up at a night club (you have to be 18 to be in their) and she told him she was 16 and managed to sneak in. So they both got drunk, and now hes behind bars for "conumating the relationship", he had no idea of her actual age other than what she told him, though the courts were on her side. The paper described her clothes as that you would expect to see 18-25 year olds wearing on their "night out" and was very revealing. They showed the shop it came from (which to save me being sued I am not naming, s the paper had to block out the name) It was a clothes shop aimed at 8-16 year olds and is found on must uk city high streets, and clothes even for as young as 8 or 9 were quite revealing i.e. crop tops, mini skirts, body hugging T-shirts etc. We often drive back from a job at night and get heckled by various females on the way abck to the station, a police officer asked us to guess the age of a group of girls, they were dressed up in revealing garb and had drinks in their hands, we guessed at 17-20. In fact 2 of them were 13 and were about to be arrested for being in possesion of alcahol underage.

In my county (lincolnshire) we have the 2nd highest underage pregnancy rate in Europe, with a stagering percentage of 21% of teenage girls becoming pregnant before their 16th birthday. It ain't clever and they normally end up with low life Fwitts and have no idea on how to bring their child up properly. With a higher percentage now of younger mothers who just don't want to take on the responsibility of looking after the kids PROPERLY, its no wonder kids are like they are now.

(rant over, for a while )

[WINGxx]

Re: The generation these days

you have the 2nd highest prgnency rate in my town the paper read "gun crime is same <forget the state now> in 70s " and it added most people that are arrsted for guncrime in my area are ranged from 10-16 i ask my self why are people as ypung as 10 got a gun and were did they get it from

also whan i was out with my freinds 1 night at some1s party we were on the way back to mine so we could crash for the night we were walking down the street bearing in mind this is like 12 at night when this kid not older then 13 and when we walked past him not saying a thing when he went to my freind " what are u lookin at u fuckin spotty bastard (sorry for the language)" for a start my friend was talkin to me so we just carried on ignoring him and carried on talking next thing we know he goes "what the fuck did u say about me" so we carried on like nothing happend next thing he runs up and grabs my freinds jacket turns him around and whips out a knife doesent stab my freind holds it to his chest and says "tell me what you said or ill stab you" at that point this car came round corner and all a suden the kid legs it dont know what happend to him but he musta bin in trouble woth people but me and my freind were like that kid was 3 years younger than us minmum and he had a knife we dont remeber wantnin a knife when we were like that and dont want 1 now and i said " why did he want to start on some 1 older bigger for no reson anyway" my mind boggles <plz dont think im just a stupid kid lol>

[Mog]

Re: The generation these days

Ok, i'm only 19, and i'm kinda going a bit before my time, so if I'm wrong, correct me.

We live in a generation where kids will badmouth and anything else vulgar, at such a young age. The cause? Reason? The main(not only) source falls back on the parents, really. Many parents don't monitor what their children do/watch on tv/play on their xbox and kids are indirectly getting affected. When the school shooting arose after one kid played Grand Theft Auto 3, Rockstar was sued, while the parents let their underage child play a mature rating game (17+)

Who is to blame? Is it the kid who played it, or his parents, who let him play it? Overall, these parents are to blame, because they let their child play an overly realistic mature-level game, which kids can't understand. There is a reason for 18+ level games.

What I'm trying to say is that parents nowadays need to take responsibility and monitor what their kids do. I'm not saying that they should be a neo-nazi and breathe over their kids shoulders for every minute, but to have a family meal, talk to their children, and only buy appropriate rating games for their children. While this doesn't fully solve the problem, what parents do plays a large role in what kind of things are coming out of children's mouths.

[kuu]

Re: The generation these days

I'm sorry, but my opinion is on the other side of the fence.

Society changes, and we're turning into "old fogies" talking about proper and scandalization, in a more open world.

It was only the 60's when Media couldn't even show couples in the same bed as they would currupt children's mind with sex...yea that's *realism* there.

We're so ingrained in what is proper, we forget all the things we did behind in our parents' back in our near/far youths.

I think it's a good thing, society is increasingly open, sexualized, and independent, because sex is a part of life, so is, cursing, and all sorts of foul stuff.

It's nothing new, they were always around, it's just that it was all hidden before. Teens dated, bedded, and ran amuck back then too, just that parents never knew. It's was always a "two faced" society, just that we're seeing more of the other face today.

I think some countries, like US, has the "over protective children" syndrome. Instead of trying to cover their eyes and ears, we should be explaining and educating the implications of it.

Same thing with language. Slang all you want, but you're not getting a job like that.

With that said, I've meet some very prim, proper, and intellegent girls. Too bad they're all dizty and have no notion of the real world and screw themselves up in the end. Living a sheltered life also means a rude awakening.