Problems with youth today...

[DarkZerker]

What my position is on this...well I believe that we are no longer barbaric. That's my only stance as me, a young teen with book smarts and respect for real genuine culture. The point is that media portrays children of our generation as either...

 

A. Rebellious and misbehaving

B. Annoying and out of control(mostly online video games)

C. All of the above.

 

Personally, I am a middle school student with good grades and show good manners towards those who I deem, "Respectable." Although many things have lead to another and our downgrading of culture is imminent from what I see. Most of the time, my friend :wub: ends up crying on my arm as she says "bye" when we leave school because of the utter bankruptcy of culture and instead resorts to gang violence. Seriously, I'm beginning to thing I need to bring a semi-automatic rifle just to protect myself.

 

That would be my only complaint with this generation, the new Dark Ages might be upon us and I will not sit idly by as my peers make this era come to a close and give birth to a new era that is worse than this one. Civilization has been good to me, and I would like to grow up in a stable environment where freedom exists without the degrading culture we might be succumbing to.

 

To summarize, these are the things the youth these days(for some, even I am guilty of it)require.

 

1. A better education and environment. Education drives science, which drives technology, which drives life nowadays. The environment allows a better flow of cultural ideals through an open forum(no pun intended).

 

2. Discipline. I do not want children to be beaten for punishment, nor should they be trained as the military does. But they(us)should be taught what to do and say in a regular world. Personally, my parents are VERY strict when it comes to education, even more so than the military(without the usual beatings...THANK GOD).

 

3. A Personality. I cannot speak for all of the children of America but many children in my district, including my girlfriend, imitates the popular media "slang" and stereotypes. I'm personally merely an observer but many of my friends imitates the icons from media from rappers to certain words that I would be banned for saying. I'm merely saying that they should individualize themselves with their own mindset.

 

4. Most importantly, SELF-CONTROL. I'm officially bankrupt in this part because all my girlfriend needs to do is sniffle a little and I instantly become her slave -_-. But all kidding aside, peer-pressure should be taught how to say "no" to without propaganda and idiocy they spout.

[KDStudios]

@Lisnpuppy

 

I was not saying that the only way to discipline a child was through smacking nor did I suggest that when you do that you beat the crap out of them.

That is what everyone ALWAYS thinks whenever that form of discipline is mentioned, that you literally beat up your child.

I mean who actually does that? (Besides the uncommon bad parents who should be locked up)

Smacking should always be either a complete NO NO or a literall last resort.

And even then, it's a slight tap on the hand half the time. Not enough to cause pain, but enough to affect them.

 

It is a very, VERY touchy subject for everyone who's a parent or anyone else interested in that subject.

I am not for smacking but sometimes there is no alternative.

People argue that there is always an alternative, but when your literally out of ideas, in that spare of the moment it's what happens...

Afterward you realise there might have been an alternative but it's obviously too late for that...

You can't plan on unpredictable elements

 

Just like what chaosblade said on the first page, when he was younger a smack was all that was needed and he understood what he did was wrong.

But like I said, It shouldn't be used or used as a last resort.

But parents today literally CAN NOT do this without getting in trouble.

All parents can do is try to make their child understand and make false threats they can't go through with.

I've seen it happen many of times.

 

What's even WORSE than that.

I've actually seen and heard children threatening to tell the social about their parents smacking them when the parents are innocent!

A child having that kind of power over a parent is just wrong, and the government just handed it to them!

All it takes is a bruise and thats it, jailtime and child taken away!

You don't know how much I see that in the paper...

It's horrible

 

But I can't agree that parents MUST take responsibility for their child's actions when most children are out today causing mayhem that a parent literally has NO clue about.

Because if they don't let the child out they will get so much grief, so they give them more freedom.

 

I admit I did that to my parents a few times. But only when I didn't understand why they wouldn't let me out. Now I see that I was foolish to do so.

 

And yes. Like you said parents can be to blame, and I even said it in my post. That sometimes it IS their fault.

But that's the way it is, parents can either be or not bothered about what their child does or grows up to be like.

 

I respect your opinion though, all parents are different, none are the same.

And like everyone. We all have different views and opinions on a subject.

Neither can be viewed as right or wrong.

In our own instances, we are both right and to others we are both wrong.

 

 

 

@DarkZerker

What you speak is truth.

We are degrading over time and it can only get worse.

Those 4 things are exactly what we all need, but no one is willing to provide.

Or at least any attempt to do some falls upon deaf ears.

When people try, the youth doesn't listen because it isn't "cool"

When people don't try, people complain and blame everyone for not trying

So you can't win really.

[DarkNinja13]

If I may, I might have a solution. Look at the horrid children you see around you - all the brats, the idiots, the whiners, and the threateners. Look at them and affirm to yourself "My children will never be like that". Then, when you do have children, keep that promise.

 

Which do you want? A good kid or "Mommy's Little Monster"?

 

You think it's important for a child to have manners? Instill that in them.

You think it's important for a child to be intelligent? Instill that in them.

You think it's important for a child to follow rules? Instill that in them.

You think it's important for a child to respect their elders? Instill that in them.

You think it's important for a child to be an individual? Instill that in them.

 

How do you instill this in them? Simple, lead by example. Be the best parent you can be and don't drop the ball like all the parents you see around you. If it's of any consolation, there are well behaved children in the world today - you just don't see them because they are behaving themselves. What you do see is all the whiney little brats that throw temper tantrums when they don't get what they want and/or threaten mom and dad when they get after the kid.

 

Like Charles Barkley once said: "I'm not a hero, I'm not an example, I'm not a role model. That's your parents job."

[Vindekarr]

I went to the mall today.

 

I heard screaming further down the isle I was in, and turned around to see a kid, barely 10, his pants falling down, screaming swear words at the top of his voice and fleeing his obese mother, who was already out of breath. The boy was knocking things off the shelves, and when he got to me, threw a punch and called me something not even I would repeat or hint at.

 

Store management demanded the woman take her child and leave. She refused, saying he was just being a little boy, and the security guards grabbed the boy, grabbed the fat slug of a mother, and dragged them both outside.

 

Now, if he really is "just being a litte boy" what's that saying about the rest of us? I for one never acted like that as a child, if I was angry about something, I'd tell it as it was in a reasonable and clear way. Not run around attacking random strangers and vandalising stores.

 

Last time I was in EB games two boys were daring eachother as to who could steal more games. They go caught and banned forever from that store, but the points stands here too. Last time I walked past the school in my loacl area, three teen girls were bashing up another girl who could not have been older than 5 simply for the power of it-naturaly, I interceded and told the murderous sluts that if they kept this up, I'd show them what a REAL kick in the shins felt like, and they scattered. Point stands-children act like monsters? exact retribution upon the parents.

 

At my worst as a child I was manipulative, deceitful, and lacking in empathy, I did some real emotional harm to people who earned my wrath, but there is a major diference between deliberately scaring the life out of someone able to defend themselves, who brought the cruel prank on themselves through bullying, and pissing on someone who has absolutely no means of defending themselves and was entirely innocent, as one of those teens was.

[Lisnpuppy]

@Lisnpuppy

 

I was not saying that the only way to discipline a child was through smacking nor did I suggest that when you do that you beat the crap out of them.

That is what everyone ALWAYS thinks whenever that form of discipline is mentioned, that you literally beat up your child.

I mean who actually does that? (Besides the uncommon bad parents who should be locked up)

Smacking should always be either a complete NO NO or a literall last resort.

And even then, it's a slight tap on the hand half the time. Not enough to cause pain, but enough to affect them.

 

It is a very, VERY touchy subject for everyone who's a parent or anyone else interested in that subject.

I am not for smacking but sometimes there is no alternative.

People argue that there is always an alternative, but when your literally out of ideas, in that spare of the moment it's what happens...

Afterward you realise there might have been an alternative but it's obviously too late for that...

You can't plan on unpredictable elements

 

Just like what chaosblade said on the first page, when he was younger a smack was all that was needed and he understood what he did was wrong.

But like I said, It shouldn't be used or used as a last resort.

But parents today literally CAN NOT do this without getting in trouble.

All parents can do is try to make their child understand and make false threats they can't go through with.

I've seen it happen many of times.

 

What's even WORSE than that.

I've actually seen and heard children threatening to tell the social about their parents smacking them when the parents are innocent!

A child having that kind of power over a parent is just wrong, and the government just handed it to them!

All it takes is a bruise and thats it, jailtime and child taken away!

You don't know how much I see that in the paper...

It's horrible

 

OK to begin...I was making the point that I didn't even have to touch my child at ALL in order to discipline. I wasn't saying anything more than that. And I well know the Child and Protective Services issues. However if a child is THREATENING a parent or holding them hostage in the way you describe...the parent lost control of that situation and child long ago. As a parent I feel I can not wait until they are 13 to finally discipline them....you do it from the very beginning. A young child throws a toy at you...you tell them no. They do it again you take the toy away. You child throws a fit in the store wanting a toy or candy....you tell them no and say, You know what...you dont get any prizes for some time. Or you say like my Mother did, "I can embarrass you more that you are me." or "look at everyone looking at you because you are behaving badly" You would be surprised at how effective this is. But the manner of discipline matters little, it matters that it is given, explained and followed through.

 

But I can't agree that parents MUST take responsibility for their child's actions when most children are out today causing mayhem that a parent literally has NO clue about.

 

Exactly part of my point. My Mother was constantly in my business. I hated her for it at the time. But she did her JOB which was to pay attention and KNOW what the heck I was doing.

 

Because if they don't let the child out they will get so much grief, so they give them more freedom.

 

Get grief by WHOM? The child? I am sorry but there is no way in hades that I would give into that nor should any parent. YOU are the adult not them. First and again...if a child is disrespecting a parent or adult in that manner they probably messed this up long ago. I see SO many parents spoiling their children then try to get control when they are teens or pre-teens. Its too late then! Even very young children can understand that their are consequences to bad behavior. You send them to their room and they can throw as much fit as they want to. They will stop when they realize after a few times that they dont get their way regardless.

 

I admit I did that to my parents a few times. But only when I didn't understand why they wouldn't let me out. Now I see that I was foolish to do so.

 

As did I and it was not tolerated and didn't go unpunished. I learned.

 

And yes. Like you said parents can be to blame, and I even said it in my post. That sometimes it IS their fault.

But that's the way it is, parents can either be or not bothered about what their child does or grows up to be like.

 

 

 

I respect your opinion though, all parents are different, none are the same.

And like everyone. We all have different views and opinions on a subject.

Neither can be viewed as right or wrong.

In our own instances, we are both right and to others we are both wrong.

 

I respect your beliefs also, but to say that parents are not the PRIMARY source of children's good or bad behavior is illogical. If the teachings of respect, responsibility and rules do not begin and end in the home WITH the parents who chose to bear these children then where would it be? I will not let others (teachers, media, or anything or anyone else) raise my children. That is my honor and privilege. For a parent to see their child behaving badly for whatever reason..be it media, movies, friends influencing them...and say "Oh well" is exactly why this topic was started. IT ALL begins at home. Someone must take responsibility for the children..it belongs to the parents that choose to have them.

[LadyMilla]

If I may, I might have a solution. Look at the horrid children you see around you - all the brats, the idiots, the whiners, and the threateners. Look at them and affirm to yourself "My children will never be like that". Then, when you do have children, keep that promise.

 

Like Charles Barkley once said: "I'm not a hero, I'm not an example, I'm not a role model. That's your parents job."

 

You know, it sounds nice and it is a respectable attitude, but the truth is, the moment your child is admitted to a kindergarten and then to school, your influence on his or her education and upbringing will drop dramatically. You will realize that, as your child is now away from home for about one third of the day, there will be a bunch of other factors that affect his/her behaviour. And if you are not the owner of an up-and-coming business with a smart manager who can keep it running in your absence, I bet it is not unusual that you and your hubby need to work extra hours to pay the bills so your time with your child will become shorter and shorter.

 

So there will be new influencing factors. The "cool" rich kid, with his coterie of brown-nosers and 'wanna-be-like-him" followers, who think your kid is a loser if he does not have the latest trendy stuff. The bully guy and his gang who will harass every newcomer because it's cool to be 'gangsta' and do all the wild stuff. Later the losers who think if your kid spends more time studying than partying then he is a total idiot. You role will be reduced to desperate attempts to correct whatever negative influence they had while your kid was away from home. Add to this the effect of the media: many advertisements suggest that if you are not a well-to-do middle-class businessman who is busy poking keys on his laptop even during the morning breakfast, your wife is not a supermodel/centerfold, and your home is not a Rockefeller mansion then you are the trash of the society (the "cool" rich kid in your child's class will readily confirm this: "we have two cars, doofus, both the latest model, I saw your mum drive a four-year old wreck, what a bunch of losers you are" ). The cult of aggression spread by the average Hollywood movies. (Don't tell me they don't have any influence on kids, especially when they are under the influence of classroom bullies. Most kids try to blend in, to join a community because humans are social beings, but this effort to belong to a group will often counteract your own ideas about his/her upbringing). A child's mind is not a finalized thing. Also, he or she will discover the contradictions between the facts of life and what you told him/her: you told your child that studying is the way to achieve something, while in the classroom the rich kid gets away with almost anything because his father is a supporter of the school, and the teachers are told to go easy on him unless they want to lose their jobs. The media feeds the usual propaganda: be free, be different... you will soon find that even if you are an important part of your child's life, you are still just a single influencing factor. You need to be very careful, very smart to guide/outsmart your own child and put all the bad influence in the proper perspective, and yet, despite all your efforts, the outside world may easily ruin everything and get the upper hand. After all, you cannot overcome the changes in the world: most families need the revenue from mom's job, so mom is no longer at home to watch over her children, she often needs to work overtime, and when she gets home, she is just as tired as daddy.

[DarkZerker]

All of these are very good points and I feel like I'm finally discussing a very important topic with INTELLECTUALS instead of the regular morons.

 

Well as a child...or young teen, I'm respectful of certain people and nearly never threw a tantrum and NEVER threw one in a public area when I was younger. Now? Well at best I'm a respectable person and at worst, which is regularly, I'm cunning, deceitful, and manipulating with very ruthless actions. But the difference between me and regular bullies is that I NEVER use my manipulative abilities to everybody. If somebody bullies me, I ruin their life to the point of suicide with an uncaring and malicious attitude and if not, I leave them alone and respect them. Simple as that.

 

 

"because it's cool to be 'gangsta' and do all the wild stuff."

 

You do not know the half of it. Back when I was five or six, everybody wanted to play the "Cool" stereotype that was set in during the 1990s with the sunglasses and everything. But now, I grow up in an environment where "cool" is swearing in every sentence and being a stereotypical gangster. I shake my head every day and just think, "What happened to this world?"

 

"The media feeds the usual propaganda: be free, be different... you will soon find that even if you are an important part of your child's life, you are still just a single influencing factor."

 

I cannot say anything about CURRENT influences parents have since I'm studying biology in my spare time and not psychology. But I'm an observer and from my observations, I can draw a couple conclusions.

 

Observation 1: Parents have either a strong positive, negative, or neutral influence on children when they are young due to them needing guidance as a little kid.

 

Observation 2: Parents have a drastic LONG term effect on a child in the three courses of possible outcomes listed above. So a very nice set of parents would most likely raise a child who is either nice or happy...or both.

 

Observation 3: Parents will have the strongest affect on a child within their 18 years of guidance. Forget friends, teachers, or whatever, parents would have a VERY strong effect on a child, depending on their course of action.

 

Conclusion: Parents can either make their child a helpful member of society or at least make them capable to live in the society or fail and make their child a druggie/jailbird.

 

But why did I not add friends to my observations? Well because if a parent is influential enough, the friends have little effect on the child. I know that the only person that has more influence than my parents is my :wub: . And that's probably because I have a soft spot for her...sad panda....

 

Er...anyways, back to my final point for this post.

 

"may easily ruin everything and get the upper hand."

 

Yes...in some cases. If a child was brought up by parents to never trust anybody unless they genuinely trust you back, like I was, the influence of peer pressure is drastically minimized with the downside being mild paranoia. But if a child was not taught the influence of peer pressure BY PARENTS and instead by teachers, they would only get this, "PEER PRESSURE IS THE DEVIL" without knowing what it actually is. That's the problem with the education system, the school spews out propaganda all over the US and it isn't JUST the US either. Nearly every country with a proper education system does that as well.

 

Parents have the biggest impact or none at all. Take your pick.

[Balagor]

Balagor, it's bad everywhere. Australia has the same problems that most western nations, it's not as bad as Vin buts it. This always happens and people always talk about this about every generation, it's just older people trying to snip at the young. It happened in the 60's, it happened in the 80's and it still happens today. Same old thing just regurgitate because of change and our fear for it.

 

But Vin isn´t old *lol*.

No, there nothing wrong with youth today, at least not more that there was with the youth of my time in the 60/70th.

My youth were SO polite, we NEVER smoked pot, we NEVER did drugs, and we tend to our schools and got double A´s.

BS, you will be dynamic, curious, a daredevil, your self WHEN YOU ARE YOUNG. I recall some of the most revolutionairy hippies from my youth, who today have become managers, company owners, protecters of the society they once despiced.

Of cause we see some morons, bullheads and fools, because media thinks it is much more interesting to bring news about gangwars, young robbers, etc. News about young kids that tend to their schools, and behave, don´t sell. Period. That´s why we never hear about those millions of good kids, guys and girls, who are just having a nice life witheout distroying others.

[DarkZerker]

Balagor, it's bad everywhere. Australia has the same problems that most western nations, it's not as bad as Vin buts it. This always happens and people always talk about this about every generation, it's just older people trying to snip at the young. It happened in the 60's, it happened in the 80's and it still happens today. Same old thing just regurgitate because of change and our fear for it.

 

But Vin isn´t old *lol*.

No, there nothing wrong with youth today, at least not more that there was with the youth of my time in the 60/70th.

My youth were SO polite, we NEVER smoked pot, we NEVER did drugs, and we tend to our schools and got double A´s.

BS, you will be dynamic, curious, a daredevil, your self WHEN YOU ARE YOUNG. I recall some of the most revolutionairy hippies from my youth, who today have become managers, company owners, protecters of the society they once despiced.

Of cause we see some morons, bullheads and fools, because media thinks it is much more interesting to bring news about gangwars, young robbers, etc. News about young kids that tend to their schools, and behave, don´t sell. Period. That´s why we never hear about those millions of good kids, guys and girls, who are just having a nice life witheout distroying others.

 

Alright, I'm calling you out on this.

 

The youth these days, AKA my peers are worse than before mostly because of the high amounts of gang violence and media spouting very bad subculture within the minds of the developing children. The media is corrupt but not for those reasons. They write what the politicians and world leaders PAY them to write and most of the time, it's just plain propaganda.

 

Fox News is probably the worst out of all of them as everything they spout is utter crap besides maybe weather reports. But either way, the media is not based on "epic stories" it's based on PROPAGANDA. The children that think being "gangster" is cool has been seeped into subculture in the late 90's by MUSIC, TELEVISION PROGRAMS. NOT THE NEWS.

 

That is all.

[monkybuttface]

Bull, Fox is the most fair and truthful one out there, all the rest are licking the feet of the Democratic\Socialist party.

Please do not stop reading there, you will miss a lot

 

HOWEVER, as a simple fact, humans MATURE after a little while that crazy S.O.B. will probably calm down into a normal S.O.B. or at least a less crazy S.O.B. Also, despite the fact that your parents are only one influence, due to the fact of genetics they will probably be the biggest, after all you got half of yourself from each of them. Ever heard "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree?" it is often true. Unless the parent pushes hard in some direction, their kid will likely grow up to be similar to them, due to genetics, learning by example, etc. Again though, as people mature they will usually be forced to weed out unhealthy habits, such as being a "gangsta". After all, gangsters don't have a high life expectancy. There were probably a very similar number of criminals in the last generation, they just got weeded out by their own stupidity. Natural selection. Also, don't you think people in every generation have had their equivalents of today's "cool" crowd?

 

 

On a sidenote however, I live in a highly rural area, I have city kids mock my accent, I mock their lung health. Also, I use racially offensive terms to describe gangsters, they seem like idiots to me. I will be 16 at the end of this month. I have black and Hispanic friends, so I am not racist, maybe I don't have the same view of society that you do, so don't go calling me an idiot, this is just what it looks like from where I am sitting.