05.21.07
How we treat our teenagers
If we are to believe everything we read in the newspapers and see on TV all teenagers are essentially hooligans who hang around street corners preying on old ladies, beating up young children and generally being unpleasant. As the mother of a teenager I would never claim that my son isn’t a nuisance at times, but he is well brought up, generally considerate and has a great bunch of friends. The same goes for my 14 year old niece who on Saturday went on the bus with 3 friends (a boy and 2 girls) to her local shopping centre. While there they were generally harassed by a large group of youths who were generally much older than them. They became concerned about the antics of the group and told the shopping centre security people who told them in no uncertain terms that there was nothing that could be done. Outside though things got nasty and they were threatened with knives and chased, the children rang the police and were told by the operator (who mistook hysteria for children mucking about) to grow up and go away. Having been followed to the bus, but once on board able to get safely home, they realised that they had had a lucky escape. Ok so they should have contacted a parent, but they thought they were doing the right thing in contacting security and the police. My sister in law is in the process of getting the police to investigate the matter, but the whole episode is a sad indictment of the way we treat teenagers today. We assume they are the trouble, not the potential victims. We treat them with disdain and fear then wonder why they act in the way they sometimes do. Teenagers are mostly not angels, but they are most definitely not the devil incarnate either.
Onehealthpro said,
May 21, 2007 at 9:27 pm
So sad that we’ve all become frightened of our fellow human beings. I know people who say they don’t care that they don’t know their neighbors…they live lives disconnected from the immediate world around them. When we no longer care about the people we share communities with, it isn’t a far jump to not caring about most anyone.
Onehealthpro
Nick Phillips said,
May 22, 2007 at 1:42 am
It happens everywhere, even in my country. Here sometimes it gets worse, we’re a multi racial country and racial issues have started to crop up from time to time recently though the government denies it, so if we can’t even trust and sort out things with our fellow human beings irrespective of the colour of the skin or the religion one practices, it doesn’t surprise me that we don’t take the children seriously enough!
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May 22, 2007 at 8:30 am
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SilverTiger said,
May 22, 2007 at 12:39 pm
The problem, as usual, is one of image. The fractious minority are the ones who get noticed and the image of youth that they create is extended to all youth. This isn’t fair but it is the situation and we have to deal with it.
Your children may be well brought up but so many are not. Bus, tube and train journeys are often rendered miserable by gangs of youngsters (sometimes in school uniform) who show no consideration for others and who turn abusive if challenged.
As a parent myself (thankfully, of a now adult son), I don’t think it’s enough for us to sit back and claim complacently “My children are well behaved.” We cannot simply foist responsibility for hooliganism onto someone else. It’s a problem for the whole community to solve.
May I also point out that no parent knows what his or her kids get up to when they are out on their own. Too often parents boast that their kids are well behaved only to discover later that they are not. There is no room for complacency.
It is also true that it is not simply a problem of young people. We live in an age when courtesy and consideration are neglected and when selfishness and self-assertion are promoted. Adults also misbehave and children imitate this antisocial behaviour. We need to promote courtesy and consideration throughout the whole of the community, not just among kids.
Julie said,
May 22, 2007 at 4:35 pm
I couldn’t agree more, and I am in no way complacent after all I have been a teenager myself. However I do know that when something awful happens people wonder how it could have been prevented, yet little is done to prevent it happening. You are right it is an issue of society, it is something however that needs debating because actually not all young people in uniform are unpleasant, not all groups of young people are threatening and so on.