Youth of today

[wolverine]

I'm not really that old. Actually, I'm 22; but I sure feel old when I observe kids 6-10 years younger than me. It seems like there is more verbal disrespect in public than ever. Sure, I would have my share of arguments with my parents and spew a few heated remarks every once and awhile, but NEVER to an adult, whether it was a teacher or a random person in public. The same attitude was shared by my peers as well.

But today, I really saw the stupidity in some people show. You may laugh at this, or you may be upset or worried, but I sure got a good story out of it.

I'm interning at an architecture firm right now that does a ton of restoration work. Today I was with one other person working on the roof of a middle school documenting damage. At one point, we were on the peak where we could be seen clearly from the main road. As we are snapping photos and writing stuff down, a car drives by with two teenagers screaming at the top of their lungs. F--ing &ss b----s!!! ...you [ reapeat profanity several times ]. Why they did this, Who knows. But what was sad is we were in a neighborhood where there were very young kids playing and other people walking by. There voices could probably be heard a block over as well. As they passed, the other guy I was with just shook his head in disbelief.

Well, it wasn't over. They came by a second time, but things changed a bit. You see, they were so busy screaming at us that they weren't watching the road. We turned our heads away just before we heard tires screech and a loud crash as they hit the back of a garbage truck that had pulled out moments ago. But since they weren't looking at the road, they didn't see it. It wasn't a seriouis crash as they had tried to avoid it, but enough of a crash to really screw up the front of the car. I can't say they deserved it, because it could have been a collision with a child or a head on crash with another car. But it just shows how stupid actions can lead to serious consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, the youth of today.

[MadVlad]

Try being 35, brother.....

[Roadgeek]

I'm 16, and I'm one of those easy-going good guys. I know what you mean though.

[suburban george3]

Don't get me started on this subject!! I 34 and can't believe how kids act these days! Momma would've blistered my hide if I acted like these kids now!

What get's me are these kids in my old neighborhood, when I go over to check on Mom's old house they'll be playin' ball in the street. They'll stop and just stand in the middle of the street and just stare at me like we're in some kind of duel. I mean "come on!" I'm in a 4000 pound vehicle, when I was there age and we were in the street and saw a car coming we yelled " CAR" and moved out of the way til' the car passed. So many kids now act like "thugs" and "punks."

What scares me the most, these kids will be takin' care of me when I'm elderly and in the nursing home!

[Recchia]

Everyone seems to forget how they acted when they were kids, or how their children acted when they were kids. My parents are shocked and appalled at stuff my little cousins do, forgetting that I did the same crap when I was his age. It's all relative. I don't really think today's youth is any worse off behaviorally (is that a word?) than those before.

The one thing I will say is that the youth of today is increasingly lazy and ignorant, all products of being raised in suburbia. I'll talk more on the subject when in a few years when I'm not still 22.

[monsoon]

.... Ladies and gentlemen, the youth of today.....

Indeed. I worked hard to buy my car. I couldn't imagine doing something like "ghost riding da whip".

[Charlotteman]

Well when I was a teenager, we did all kinds of zany things-----hollering out car windows at people, etc.

Just part of being a kid I think.

However I do agree that public swearing by kids is far too excessive these days.

[Cadeho]

Everyone seems to forget how they acted when they were kids, or how their children acted when they were kids. My parents are shocked and appalled at stuff my little cousins do, forgetting that I did the same crap when I was his age. It's all relative. I don't really think today's youth is any worse off behaviorally (is that a word?) than those before.

The one thing I will say is that the youth of today is increasingly lazy and ignorant, all products of being raised in suburbia. I'll talk more on the subject when in a few years when I'm not still 22.

You are so right. When one gets old they either have selective memory or they plain try to forget their pasts. When I see reports about teens and sex and stuff, why do the activities shock parents and old people? They did and still do the same things.

But when you cuss in front of your child, or cuss at your child, allow them to listen to explicit lyrics, you're not allowed to get upset if things get repated, especially back to you or someone else. It's your fault.

One day I was taking pics and two school busses of elementary school age kids passed by me and the kids screamed curse words at me. That's something we never did.

I've heard the stories of how my great grandmother was. She'd slap you when you were wrong without even looking at you. All her pics look mean too. I've never seen a smile on her face. But I also heard that by the time my mother was around, she was quite docile. My grandmother also didn't take anything. I remember picking my switch. But no one cursed at me when I did wrong. No one called me stupid or belittled me. It was discipline and that's something parents either don't know how to do, want to do, or too busy to do. That'll be part of our downfall. Respect and shame are things of the glorious past.

[suburban george3]

Indeed. I worked hard to buy my car. I couldn't imagine doing something like "ghost riding da whip".

That reminds me of a friend in college who hated the car his parents bought him (a non-inspiring Chevy Corsica sedan I believe) so he got drunk one night and took a claw hammer to it. Talk about a nice ride the rest of the way thru college!!

But those kids in that video!?!?! HOW STUPID!! I don't know which was worse, the one in the pickup going thru the neighborhood or the one with the sedan going in circles! We went mud-bogging and some stuff like that, but that video is crazy stupid!!

[Cadeho]

What about the report about sex in today's music and children? Did "Closer," "Baby Got Back," Rumpshaker," and "I'll Make Love to You" make kids in the 90s have sex? What about "I Want Your Sex," "Nasty Girl," "Pull Up to the Bumper" and "Super Freak" in the 80s? Did "Rock Creek Park," "Hot Stuff," "Inside My Love," and "Sexy Dancer" make them do it? How bad of an influence were Tom Jones and Elvis have on children? I guess in the 40s and further back it was perfect. Nothing influenced them. I guess jazz and classical didn't make people want to do anything... so I guess it's safe... well there's the matter of jazz being called jazz... that word is offensive... or was...

[wolverine]

"Everyone seems to forget how they acted when they were kids"

Understandably, when a person is younger, they are a bit more rebellious and not always act on their best behavior. That all has to do with maturity. But that doesn't explain the gradual shift in character that is seen in today's youth. A lot of it has to do with parental guidance. I'm not going to blame it on explcit lyrics, video games, or movies. Hip hop and rap are all I ever listen to, and played a few violent video games when I was younger and heard cuss words on tv all the time. But I was tought how to act in public, and how to respect authority. These values seems stronger generations back. Just ask any 70 year old grade school teacher.

[dimebag1980]

Indeed. I worked hard to buy my car. I couldn't imagine doing something like "ghost riding da whip".

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Holy crud....................................................

Stupid, STUPID kids...

[Cadeho]

As I said respect and shame are gone and parents aren't really parents today.

Kids need to respect themselves and others.

They need shame to keep them in line. They need to think of how their actions affect not just them, but others and their family name. They need to bring honor and respect to their name. Everything's in the open now.

Luckily, in my immediate family (including my first cousins) we were all good. There's only one branch of the family that somehow cracked, but the rest is decent and of great character. They never had a problem with me. What's the rebel about?

[Snowguy716]

You know, I was raised by baby boomers in a rural area of northern Minnesota. When I was 3 years old, I absolutely refused to have anything more than underwear on in the house (I developed a rebellious streak.. haha, the irony, and a young age). My dad was at work and my mom was gonna go pick up some lunch while she was cleaning the house. I refused to put clothes on, so she brought me to the place in just underwear thinking that other people would give me weird looks and shame me into putting clothes on.

Nope, people gave me friendly laughs and told me how cute I was which pissed my mom off to no end. Either way, I eventually realized that clothes were just a necessary part of life.

But I don't blame parents for the way kids act today. Swearing is heard every day in music, on TV, on the radio.. you can say damn, but one G damn out of you and you're going straight to hell.. NO PURGATORY!

I don't think you can really blame it on just the parents or just the media... The media started making inroads in kids 40 years ago and things have gotten more out of hand since, in the traditional "I go to church every Sunday morning, night, and Wednesday for Bible study" way. But things are relative.

Swear words don't phase me... I hear them all the time, and I use them quite a bit when trying to stress a point. Because I realize that they're just words that some old people with an authority problem got all into a huff about a few hundred years ago.

Did you know that the word crap comes from the German scheiss, which means poop? Well, the French aristocracy that controlled Britain some 800 years ago didn't fancy the word crap much and decided it was vulgar.. and that maneur was much more musically pleasant to the ears. The same can be said for many English words, of which we have two of (one for the peasants, one for the aristocrats)...

For example: Farmers (peasants) rarely ate cow meat, but dealt with cows every day. The word cow, (from the German Kuh, pronounced kooh) stayed, while cow flesh (kuhfleisch) went and was replaced with beef (from french)

Swine: German (Schwein)

Pig: Porc (French)

It is really hard to take these "swear" words seriously when you know where they come from and why they are considered vulgar.. and I just think you all sound like a bunch of frivilous persnickety flibbertigibbets who like nothing more than to talk about how lazy and boring the young generation is.

And about "respecting" authority. I was raised to question authority and that you should be skeptical. Respectful but always having a wary eye on those in power. Which is perhaps why I get so fed up with our "father knows best" "we're protecting you from the evil world" attitude of our current political scene.

Censor: Crap in this case means... well scheisse... look it up in a German-english dictionary.. or take a wild guess.

[waccamatt]

And about "respecting" authority. I was raised to question authority and that you should be skeptical. Respectful but always having a wary eye on those in power. Which is perhaps why I get so fed up with our "father knows best" "we're protecting you from the evil world" attitude of our current political scene.

I was raised that way too, Snowy. Alot of that could be because my grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who knew firsthand by the time I came around, that you never totally trust your government.

I think whenever people become adults they think the current younger generation is more disrespectful and vulgar. It's just that they are into different things than we were.

[Recchia]

Another thing may be the lack of discipline from parents. Parents are too afraid to discipline their childern now out of fear that they'll hurt their self esteem or something. My parents smacked the crap out of me when I stepped outta line, and it worked pretty well if you ask me.

[Cadeho]

You know, I was raised by baby boomers in a rural area of northern Minnesota. When I was 3 years old, I absolutely refused to have anything more than underwear on in the house (I developed a rebellious streak.. haha, the irony, and a young age). My dad was at work and my mom was gonna go pick up some lunch while she was cleaning the house. I refused to put clothes on, so she brought me to the place in just underwear thinking that other people would give me weird looks and shame me into putting clothes on.

Nope, people gave me friendly laughs and told me how cute I was which pissed my mom off to no end. Either way, I eventually realized that clothes were just a necessary part of life.

OOOOH! So you wrote that episode of Yes, Dear!

[NCB]

OOOOH! So you wrote that episode of Yes, Dear!

I was thinking the exact same thing as I read through that.

[dtown]

Another thing may be the lack of discipline from parents. Parents are too afraid to discipline their childern now out of fear that they'll hurt their self esteem or something. My parents smacked the crap out of me when I stepped outta line, and it worked pretty well if you ask me.

Well, im 16 and i know my parents arent afraid to discipline me. When i was younger and i did something bad, my mom would spank me until she thought i learned my lesson.Of course, I dont get spanked anymore, but looking back on it, i agree that i deserved it, my reason for this is my cousin. His mother has never spanked him, and he never listens to anything anyone says, he gets put into "time-out", which is the most ineffective discpline "tool" i have ever seen.

About the swearing at adults thing, i have been taught not to do, and i dont. I swear with other kids, but not at adults.

And about suburbangeorge's comment aboout the kids standing in the middle of the street when you drive through: This happens to me and my neighbor all the time. Ill be riding with him and when we get into my neighborhood there is always these 12 year old kids who skateboard(who also suck really bad, but think they are really good at it) blocking the street and skateboarding in the way of cars(trying to be tough, i guess). When they run out in front of us we just honk the horn at them or tell them out the window to move, and they move the very second you thouch the horn, they move. Real tough guys. One of them is scared of my golden retreiver.

[dimebag1980]

Well, im 16 and i know my parents arent afraid to discipline me. When i was younger and i did something bad, my mom would spank me until she thought i learned my lesson.Of course, I dont get spanked anymore, but looking back on it, i agree that i deserved it, my reason for this is my cousin. His mother has never spanked him, and he never listens to anything anyone says, he gets put into "time-out", which is the most ineffective discpline "tool" i have ever seen.

About the swearing at adults thing, i have been taught not to do, and i dont. I swear with other kids, but not at adults.

And about suburbangeorge's comment aboout the kids standing in the middle of the street when you drive through: This happens to me and my neighbor all the time. Ill be riding with him and when we get into my neighborhood there is always these 12 year old kids who skateboard(who also suck really bad, but think they are really good at it) blocking the street and skateboarding in the way of cars(trying to be tough, i guess). When they run out in front of us we just honk the horn at them or tell them out the window to move, and they move the very second you thouch the horn, they move. Real tough guys. One of them is scared of my golden retreiver.

^ Wannabe tough guys like that will usually disperse when you rev the engine and start to plow toward them. If not, they'll roll underneath your car and wish they had dispersed. I've had to explain to the cops, on more than one occasion, why I nearly ran over 10 punk kids at once.

But looking back, I did the same stupid crap... though it's hard for me to think I did. One time my friends and I were doing just that when the guy got upset and started yelling at us. We shouted obscenities and flipped him off, threatened him and such. He got on his phone and within 5 minute there were 3 police cars there to deal with us. As it turned out, he was a police officer on his way home from work for the day.

[dtown]

^ Wannabe tough guys like that will usually disperse when you rev the engine and start to plow toward them. If not, they'll roll underneath your car and wish they had dispersed. I've had to explain to the cops, on more than one occasion, why I nearly ran over 10 punk kids at once.

But looking back, I did the same stupid crap... though it's hard for me to think I did. One time my friends and I were doing just that when the guy got upset and started yelling at us. We shouted obscenities and flipped him off, threatened him and such. He got on his phone and within 5 minute there were 3 police cars there to deal with us. As it turned out, he was a police officer on his way home from work for the day.

ahahahahahahahahahahaha! thats so funny.

Aside from the horn we also do the engine thing from time to time, the thunder of a small block Chevy V-8 gets the job done most of the time. Im waiting for those kids to one day work up the balls to come and confront us, which would be pretty funny because im 6 foot tall, thin, but kinda muscular, and my friend who is smaller than me has 2 containers of pepper spray in his center council. LOL.

[Charlotteman]

It has been said that a sure sign of being "old" is when someone forgets what it was like to be young.

I'm 51, and I'll never be old. Because I remember vividly how it was to be young, how fun it was, all the crazy damn things we did!

Kids are always gonna be immature--part of being a kid.

People who lamment the "kids of today" are becoming "old" right before your very eyes. Just my humble opinion of course-lol

[Cadeho]

My mother described me as the oldest little boy she'd ever known. I think she was looking for me to do something wild and crazy, and I remember we got in an argument over how people my age acted when I was 16 and over why they couldn't just do right. That's about it.

[FromCityToRural]

I agree, I don't see much of value in the kids coming up to high school now, or even in my own peers (though there are exceptions, and I assume one day the light bulb will go on for most to go an and become valuable, contributing members of society). I think the lack of respect is nothing new (I'm not exactly a stranger to it...my last car was considered a public nuisance around town because it was so loud, and the police made sure I knew it), but it seems to me kids now are even less willing than ever to take real risks, to be themselves even at the cost of looking, talking, or even acting different than those around them.

My best example is with fashion. It seems to me, everybody looks the same; very few people strike out and find their own style. I have, with the 50's, and have turned it into a whole lifestyle besides just the way I look. And I have to say, it's a point of pride for me. People give me funny looks, but I have the satisfaction of knowing that I am who I want to be, and that I am not letting anybody else quash my individuality.

[waccamatt]

I agree, I don't see much of value in the kids coming up to high school now, or even in my own peers (though there are exceptions, and I assume one day the light bulb will go on for most to go an and become valuable, contributing members of society). I think the lack of respect is nothing new (I'm not exactly a stranger to it...my last car was considered a public nuisance around town because it was so loud, and the police made sure I knew it), but it seems to me kids now are even less willing than ever to take real risks, to be themselves even at the cost of looking, talking, or even acting different than those around them.

My best example is with fashion. It seems to me, everybody looks the same; very few people strike out and find their own style. I have, with the 50's, and have turned it into a whole lifestyle besides just the way I look. And I have to say, it's a point of pride for me. People give me funny looks, but I have the satisfaction of knowing that I am who I want to be, and that I am not letting anybody else quash my individuality.

Good for you, FCTR!