Negative attitudes of the teenagers of today

[Liquid Blue]

What do you think causes it?

Let me start by saying I don't think all kids today act like idiots, quite a number of them are level-headed and responsible. But a good amount of them on the other hand, are rude as all hell- to their parents, teachers, strangers, everyone. I was talking to a friend about this over AIM-

Me: what do you think causes it
Him: they get written up
Him: and suddenly its a huge fucking injustice
Him: People dont raise their kids anymore man
Him: Before you buy them an Ipod mino pro nano with fucking satellite link-up ability that can check blood sugar
Him: Teach them to respect their elders
Him: mini*
Him: If I had a kid and it was a teenage boy
Him: and he told me to shut up
Him: I would seriously consider slapping him
Him: I just dont know

--


Is it bad parenting?

The Internet?

Social peer pressure to defy authority?

What do you think it is?

I know there have always been a rebellious few in every past generation, but I'm still wondering what you think about this current generation of youngsters, and what has gotten them to act like spoiled brats.

[PolluX]

who cares, we'll all die of cancer in the end. Go have fun and make love!

[Jerome Scuggs]

yeah, i tend to have a good impression of someone the first time i meet them, i really shouldn't, because 95% of the people i meet i wind up disliking. seriously, there are some totally ingrateful people that shouldn't be living.

[MirrorriM]

I think it's parents. I teach swim lessons and there are so many little brats that get away with things unpunished. The parents coddle them, give empty threats, and just say the usual "stop that" but never actually stop them. In one of my psych classes there was an interesting idea mentioned: parents today seem to think that the only way to show love is to let kids have what they want and that parents fear punishing their children because then the kids will hate them.

[gran guerrero]

my parents beat me

[Ekko]

it's all the teachers having sex with kids.

but really, no.

i have a nephew that is so baddddddd he's like 6, his dad can't discipline him because even a slight slap and his mom starts to cry.

whenever they came over he used to run around like a tornado messing EVERTHING UP.

one weekend when I was at university apparently my mom smacked him up good and his mom got so mad she left.

she got over it, and the kid doesn't run around my house like a tard anymore.

my mom never beat me as a child, ever. my sister however, was the bad one, she got beat good.

parents need to discipline their children, because the rest of the world has to deal with them.

also parents shouldn't beat their kids too much otherwise they end up like nethila.

[genocidal]

If my kid tells me to shut up I'm definitely going to hit him (girls get tricky, but I'm very creative so trust me I'll make it up to her). I wish my parents had hit me more; maybe then I wouldn't have been such a little shit.

[Facetious]

Do you include our generation when we were teenagers? Or do you mean people that are teenagers currently? Well, I guess it doesn't matter. When we were teenagers, I don't think we were that bad. And I don't know anyone that's a teenager now, so I can't really speak on that.

[Liquid Blue]

I guess you can include us but my friends don't give their parents nearly as much shit as I see some 15-18 year olds give them. They tell them to shutup to their faces, bitch and whine if they have to do anything, complain and ask for expensive shit, etc etc.

Hell I don't even cuss around my parents, or women older than like 25

[phata$$]

What do you mean by 'negative'?

Just a plain jerk? an irritable crybaby? a loner who hates everything and everyone? a violent bully?

[Liquid Blue]

Well obviously there's not just one form of a negative attitude, but in general I mean the most common ones- impatient, rude, loud and abrasive, violent, so on and so on.


Here's another view I got from posting this on another forum-

Not just a lack of responsibility, but a massive attitude of entitlement.

Not only that but it seems to me that many parents are not taking responsibility for being parents. They are satisfied with letting their children do whatever they want and not doing any form of discipline.

For example, I was standing out on duty one day when a mother dropped off her son, who happened to be in one of my classes. He's an 8th grader, and is well known for being a spoiled brat. As he gets out of the car, he asks mom for ten dollars to buy lunch. Mom points out that she prepays for his lunches and all he has to do is enter his code at the paypoint. And, in any event, lunch is only two bucks. He says that the stuff he wants is not available with a code. (This is true. Junk food is available, and you have to pay cash.)

Anyway, the kid gets pissed, demands the money again. Mom again refuses and he calls mom a "Fucking bitch". Loud. To her face. Mom does nothing. Had I done something similar, my mom would have shut off the car, gotten and and beat my ass in front of everybody there. His mom does nothing. She just drives off.

Are all parents like this? No. But I think many of them are so wrapped up in themselves they are not effective parents.

I also noticed something else. Many kids who cause problems have unstable home arrangements. Many of them move around a lot. I have kids who are holy terrors. They are in school for a while, they withdraw and move to a new place and new school. A few months later they are back. I have a roughly 40% turnover throughout the school year. However, if you look at my GATE class, There has not been a single kid move away the whole year.

Does more stability equal higher acheivement? I think it is a factor. I don't know what the answer is. All I know is the problem is getting worse...

[WuTang420]

my kids arent quite teens yet, but theres a few things i remember my grandpa doing (didnt know my dad) that i plan to use in the future

#1 is fear, EG: when i would speak anything but politely in front of my grandma, i would get to go pick my own branch of the tree witch was to whoop my ass upon return to the house. this only had to happen 2x before i figured it out


#2, be consistent. EG: if there was a female of any age near as we went in someplace, failiure to hold the door would result in my standing and holding the door for the duration of the time we spent wherever...every goddamn time.. but again, it stuck and to this day ill jog ahead a bit to get the door for a lady. the consistency factor applies to all ill behaviors not just doors.

ok so now im tired of typing

anyways my whole take on it is that nowadays parents are forced to micro-manage children to the point taht it becomes confusing and ineffective. with 500 different sources all saying you should raise you kids a different way (school, social workers, tv/media, counselors, hippys ect.) and if you dont do it in the preset fashion your a baaad parent. IMO fuck that

kids are either being:

A: respectful to you and others
or
B: mouthy, disrespectful little shitheads that NEED TO GO FETCH ME A GODDAMN STICK... BETTER HOPE YOUR ASS IS BACK IN 5 MINS OR YOU GET 2 SWINGS! - sry just practicing


yeah its a little harsh, but damned if it didnt work on me

[Squeezer]

I'll be the first person to tell you that I'm rather "fortunate."

With that in mind, I've always felt slightly distanced from my friends because....well, they bitch about the stupidest shit.

Honestly...I don't like my parents (especially my father....he's a dispicible asshole if there ever was one), but I give them the respect they deserve. After all, everything I have and everything I'm doing right now is owed to them.

Maybe it's personal experience. I had to deal with some heavy shit before I was ready, so maybe that had something to do with my formulating an opinion, but what it comes down to is this: I have no respect for the kids in my dorm that bitch about how difficult their life is because their parents wont shell out the money for a brand fucking new printer, when there are plenty of kids our age in this country alone that work tooth and nail for a measely pay check.

Fucking college. It's sleep-away camp for rich kids. These fucking kids have the gaull to bitch about getting bad grades, and then complain about the proffesors, the classes, or the subject material....But never the fact that they were busy getting drunk on Sunday night when they should have been revising that paper for history.

Like I said, I'm rather priviledged, but I have never once dumped accountability for something I fucked up on another person, and I've done my best to be gracious and attempt to earn back everything I've been given.

Now, regarding LB's question, and getting off my rant, I believe it's a combination of factors. Firstly, the baby boomers liked to spoil their children and give them all the material posessions and feelings their parents never gave them. Our parents spoiled our generation. Of course kids aren't going to want to go out and learn a skill when you buy them multiple video game systems and other digital devices. It's encourging lethargic behaivor. On top of that, we're a generation of people born into a service economy. Like it or not, the jobs in a service economy pale in work ethic to those in say a factory or textile based economy. We have no value for work (because we've had everything handed to us, and when our parents told us to mow the lawn we sat on our computers and then talked our feelings out about why we didn't want to mow the lawn.....Although I always had chores to do in my house....and my parents never gave me a fucking allowance...agjagkjhsgjsgsgsgj). Gah, whatever.

Edit: Just look at our Society today. If a student fucks up, it's the fault of the teacher. If a kid is fat and someone says something, they get sued. If a kid shoots up his school, it's Marylin Manson or violent video games. We've removed all personal accountability on the part of the kid and instead filled his head with excuses.

Sigh. Really disturbs me to know that the kid who jumped off the watchtower about a month or two ago wont ever have to work a day in his life because his dad's worth so much money. That bastard runs around being selfish as fuck and screwing over his life, and he'll still be more wealthy than I ever will. I just spent three 14 hour days editing a video I'll get, at best, a B on, and this shithead sat on his computer all day until he decided to try and kill himself because no one was paying attention to him. Fucking punk.

Edit2: I need some sleep, but I really wanna watch Hot Fuzz.

[Zerzera]

I didn't read this thread except for post #1, so I don't know if anyone else said this, but:


Fuck you, this is one of those retarded things old people say. It's what they said 100 years ago, it's what they said 500 years ago, it's what they said 1000 years ago. You don't even remember the shit you pulled when you were of that age, and what you found polite back then, might have upset some old hag too.

All this "more violence than .." , "more rudeness than.." is pretty stupid, since there are no real records of social behavior, other than what people considered to be appropriate in general or happenings that shocked enough to keep record of it. And I wouldn't trust your own memories on this matter either.
But if you read books from any era, you will find that there's rude youth. It has to do with their age, rather than the time they live in.

[Dant-Zu]

I don't believe in physical punishment, especially not beating your children. Setting up limits, discussing and playing with your children while they are still young and showing your love and respect to them without overdoing it is the good way to raise kids in my opinion. Atleast that's the way I was raised and I consider myself as an ok person, not rude nor bitchy. I've never been beaten, only pulled from hair sometimes but even that was extreme. I didn't even have the thing in puberty where you bitch about everything and shout to your parents all the time. Hell, I've only shouted at them like 3 times including this post-puberty time (if I'm even at it yet). So yeah, I think you can raise your kids without getting them spoiled even if you dont beat them and show your authority that way. You just have to be able to say NO to them.

Tho, me and my dad made a joke about beating children and shocked our neighbours with it when we still lived in a rowhouse. My dad took a belt and hit the sofa while I yelled "OUCH!". Come to think of it, that wasn't pretty wise.