Easier access to guns, a morally degrading society, porn at the touch of your fingers, sexual "expectations" of kids is way different, sexual text messaging, facebook where everyone knows your kids business, online sexual predators...YES I think there is way more to be worried about as a parent these days. I long for the day when I can move from the area I currently call "hecticville USA".
Agreed. I see them every day at my work. You should see visitation days at the juvenile jail at which I work. WOW. I get into it more with the parents than the kids. I have a lot of stories, but one that sticks out is a teacher came to visit her incarcerated son and slipped him a cell phone. He took that little cell phone and put it into his mouth and somehow managed to get that phone into his room. I was tipped by one of my little informants that this occured. I caught him in under ten minutes with that phone in his room. And his mom was a "teacher". wow
I guess It's different where I live then as far as kids getting Into trouble more now but then again there was many more farms around the area and most farm kids respected their parents and then some.
More selfish parents IMO these days then crappy. Most people don't wake up and say "I am going to suck as a parent". They just do not know how to put anybody else first in their lives besides themselves.
As a teacher, I can say, yes, there is a major behavioral and achievement difference now than there even was when I was in high school in the early 2000's. Personal responsibility, respect, and valuing self achievement is lacking in many kids today, and VS hit the nail on the head on all accounts as to WHY it's happening. Parents. There have always been crappy parents, rotten kids, and bad people, but the division between the bad and the good is narrowing. Believe me. As a teacher, we REALLY see these things.
Agreed. I am not saying I believe our country has really gone downhill, I am just saying I notice a difference. And to be honest with you, I can really point the finger at one group of people as to why our kids don't show the respect they did years ago. MEN. We have failed as a group to keep these young kids in line. We need to pick up our game.
That And people's perspective changes. You might have thought you were a very respectful, innocent, perfect teenager, but if your present self met your teenage self, you might have a different opinion of yourself. I can admit that I was a little prick as a teenager. I look at kids I see today, and I think "look at those little bastards, what parent would allow their kids to be like that?", but if I sit back and actually think about it a bit, I realize that little annoying teenager was me 12 years ago and I was raised by awesome parents.
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All you guys talking about things have gotten much worse since you were kids. I imagine that your parents where saying the same thing about you when you were kids - about how much worse kids are as a whole compared to when they were kids. I'm also sure that your kids will be saying it one day.
Here's one for you guys. What about mainstream media? Do you honestly feel that with all of the reality TV, availability of sex/porn on any computer or smart phone, the media's portrayal of morally questionable lifestyles as being "normal," etc have no bearing on our society and the lifestyles our youth choose? Just flip through the TV during prime time and you don't have to go far to see prostitution, murder, drugs, teenage pregnancies, etc, not to mention how ridiculously violent some video games have gotten. It's just an opinion and an observation from someone who actually see's a large sampling of youth day in and day out, but I certainly believe our youth of today are MUCH different than the generations of past. I still like to think that with proper parenting, most kids can see past this heavy entrainment influence as being just that...entertainment, but there are certainly some kids who view these things as "normal" ways of living. Again, I believe the societal impacts technology has on today's youth generation has created a MUCH greater impact and generation gap than ever before.
I agree. I would NEVER blame the media/entertainment/friends for my kids' actions. If I have to work harder as a parent because the outside influences are more prevelant, thats fine. I chose to have kids, and I accept that responsibility. Accountability is lacking.
Agreed, everytime a fat dude walks in a bar I yell "Norm", all I get is funny looks. I ask my mail man questions about worthless knowledge and he knows diddle
Wow I didn't realize there being a difference in kids these days as compared to the past was even debatable. Night and day imo. Yeah... true there was always rotten kids and rotten parents. But you can't argue the level of "wrong" things kids do today compared to kids of the past. Not even in the ballpark. I remember stealing a Hank Aaron baseball card from my uncle. Didn't sit down for a week and was handled like the worse thing in the world. Now? Guns in school, drugs, porn, computer, texts, sex, pregnancy, theft, respect, language alone.... on and on and on and on. There's downright scary things to worry about now. There was back then too I get that, but NOWHERE NEAR the level of today!
Remember the dark ages, all they above minus the sexting!!! We just here a lot more then we use too, that is a big issue.
