What is wrong with Children today? OK if you are 25 or older can you relate?

Question

What is wrong?

I was born in 1979 and grew up in the 80's. No Cell Phones, No Call waiting, No Video Games, or Computers.

Parents were able to leave us home alone and very few house burnt down, guns were left under beds, door were unlocked.

You can't do that now, things are so different. What is going wrong and what can we do to fix it? What are something that you used to love to do that your children or Grandchildren will never do?

Answer 1

I think they are spoiled for the most part. When I was a kid we weren't allowed to speak until spoken to, interrupt someone when they were talking, eat in Grandma's livingroom, do anything inside if the weather wasn't below 20 degrees, sleep in, backtalk, etc. Now it seems like every kid I know can do all of those things and get away with it! Maybe parents now a'days are more lax in raising their kids because they don't have the time to raise them... who knows but the world is suffering because of it! When I was a kid we used to love to float the canal on old tractor tire tubes.. I'm not positive but I think that now it's illegal to even be in the canals! How sad!

Answer 2

I agree with cosaxteacher. All the terrible things we perceive as problems today were around when we were kids. But we didn't have CNN or FoxNews giving us 24/7 updates and details. Things are not really different, we're just more aware of them.

I wish I could let my kids play without worrying about them. When we were kids, we'd go play for hours all over the neighborhood and in vacant lots. Our mom didn't know where we were or what we were doing, and the rule was to be home when the sun went down. When my kids play outside, I watch out the windows constantly just to make sure they're still there. We have a park within walking distance, but I'm honestly too scared to let them go alone. Sometimes I feel over-protective, but I've just heard too many horror stories to be any other way.

Answer 3

There were video games in the 80's, and some darn good ones.

There were also computers in the 80's. I got my first one in 1985.

We didn't have cellphones, but we had cordless phones. And kids talked on them A LOT.

Crime is actually lower now than in the 80's.

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The main thing that is the same is that every generation believes that the following one is corrupt and going downhill. It's one of those fallacies that persists from generation to generation.

I was born in 1980, and grew up in the 80's and 90's. I'm sure some people born in the 1960's were appalled at how much we were obsessed with Transformers, My Little Pony, cartoons, television, and terrible, terrible music.

Answer 4

I'm 20 but i would like to answer if you dont mind. It irritates me that a lot of parents today let their children run over top of them. I mean, I stiil don't curse in front of my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. I think the big thing that affected the youth today is social services. They say it's abuse for parents to spank their children so people are afraid to spank them out of fear their children may get taken away. I was spanked as a child and I turned out fine. (unless you consider the fact that i'm not married with 2 children) But, I'm with their father and we're getting married next year...I was legally an adult when I had both. I honestly don't want my children near most of these kids when they get older. My favorite thing to do when I was younger was taking night walks. My friends an I would get together at 9 on the weekends and walk around town. We eventually went to our male friend's house and took a night swim. I was also allowed to have friends that were boys stay over cause thats all we were...friends. I would sleep in my bedroom and they would sleep in my bro's room. My parents never thought about twice about that. I doubt that my kids would be allowed to have a boy stay over when they're teens. I'd be too worried about the way people are so casual with sex. I had sex the first time when I was 17 and I am still with that man. I wish the world would go back to the way it was when I was younger. I liked not having ot worry about getting shot in school and had no worries about being molested by a teacher

Answer 5

I miss the old days too but if you remember when the law was passed and we couldn't discipline our children the way we was I think it would have been better now look I'M NOT A RACIST white had more problems with there kids and had too get counseling and blacks was more respectful to their parents and if the neighbor seen you do something bad you got a whup pin then go home and got another one but I think when they passed the that law it went wrong because you cant control our kids these days don't get me wrong some parents did go tooooo far OK but the only thing we can do now is teach them too respect the house and themselves and the ones who respect them and try to do the right thing and stay away from negativity and defend there self when someone hit them

Answer 6

Just as all and any generation we all want to raise our kids different than the way we were raised. I am a mother of a six yr old and catch myself giving him choices I never had at his age. Ex: Do u want green beans or brocili? Who's parents asked what we wanted to eat? Hell growin up I ate what was for dinner or went hungry! Another example would be we ask our kids to do things such as Will u pick ur toys up? Not my moma and daddy They told us. I have asked myself the same question and the only answer I have is the system of goverment laws and of course us always wanting more and better for our children. And yes I agree with the others that the media does play a role in it too. But only we can change it, how is the question that wonders in my mind....

Answer 7

In short... Their parents. That is what is wrong with the kids today. That and the government creating more and more ways to help parents not be parents. Organizations that spout how wrong it is to discipline your children in any way other than giving them a stern look and putting them in a chair.

Unfortunately, it is my generation that are the parents of today and all I see are a bunch of lazy and angry parents.

But... Looking at statistics, I think the teen crime rate has gone down over the past 20 years.

Answer 8

Ok well i'm not over 25 but i know where you are coming from. And I honestly think that it's the lack of disapline. Parents arent allowed to smack thier children, and i think that parents giving their children cell phones should be shot!
Todays society is making them grow up to fast. They seem to think they are adults by the time they hit 14.
Maybe we should try alter the laws and let them see how hard it is to deal with the stress of being an adult and see if they still want to grow up fast.
And as for the kids that think its ok to be in gangs and carry guns and all. I think that they should be trialed as an adult not as a juvi.

Answer 9

First off, I love your question!

My biggest regret for my kids is that they won't have such a large group of kids to play with for summers.

When I was growing up the whole neighborhood got together and came up with great games; freeze/football tag, basketball, treasure hunts, picnics, cops & robbers, hide & seek -using the entire neighborhood! - fun stuff like that and the best part was the amount of kids all playing together, even if we didn't like one another, in the name of the game, we got along. I used to be outside from about 11 all the way until the lights came on!!!!

Nowadays, because kids are cooped up in the house for various reasons (parents not home, video games, computers, etc.), there aren't as many kids, and some of the kids seem to be "older" in terms of they don't want to "play" they want to "hang out."

I still send my kids outside to play, but unfortunately, they can't just be outside all day without checking in and me knowing who with and where they are playing.

Answer 10

There's nothing wrong with kids these days, it's just a common gripe old folks come up with generation after generation. It started a few thousand years ago and never let up.


I think a better question would be, "What's wrong with adults today?". We've managed to screw up this planet and our perspective societies to the point where the only hope we have of saving ourselves lies with the kids. They're going to have to fix everything we fudged up.

Keep in mind, violent crime among our American youth has been steadily dropping since the mid 90's. As for what children are exposed to in the modern media, it probably isn't half as bad as what kids witnessed in history passed (war, rape, murder, public executions,etc.).