Why is it many british kids today are being raised as yobs?

Question

I have just returned from from a break in Bulgaria where we spent some time in a small town on the coast.

It was a pleasure to walk down the street and find kids entertaining themselves without swearing, smoking, drinking, or vandalising property. Indeed they were both polite and respectful to both their parents and strangers as well as funny and pleasent to talk to.

This contrasts to the day we got back when I returned to my home in Britian to find one kid booting a football against the side of my house damaging the outside wiring, and another throwing rocks against the garden gate for no reason.

I actually live in a fairly decent area as well so is this just the way British society is going?

I don't want to tar all Biritish kids with the same brush, but does this country have any future?

For the record I am 27 and not a boring old fogey.

Answer 1

It's been going like this for some time. FTR - my son is 27 and I've been aware of it since we moved here. It's a bit of a vicious circle - kids are treated with such disrespect here - it is quite clear they are second class citizens - they are not included in our society. We ban them from pubs, movies (who willingly watches an under 18 movie?), discoes, nightclubs. We provide them with no play areas - teenagers hang around with nothing to do but beg for alcohol etc etc. We expose them to drugs - we pay lipservice to our disapproval of drugs but it is very trendy - and oursociety enjoys all the things that a few years ago were considered debased. Kids want to aspire to these freedoms too.
We have done away with the nuclear family, provided a social welfare state, working mothers and absent fathers all mean that kids are seriously neglected. Our children's ambitions are to have sex, do drugs and be treated as the grownups we ourselves are the example of. We're very aware of OUR children's rights and the rights of society come second.
Recently I rasied the questio of whether or not cctv should be used to schools to show parents how their kids behaved in class. Most people were appalled at the idea. Those same people will not support the school when it tries to kick naughty kids out.
So yes, you're right. The kids are being rasied as yobs. But it isn't their fault - it is OUR fault. Our fault because we let them get away with it, our bad examples, our bad planning, our bad discipline etc etc.

Answer 2

What the F*ck, you can not say that, you are a generalist and I suggest you have not thought this through, you can not compare the UK kids to the Bulgarians kids, for a start you cannot even begin to reconcile the economic boundaries that exist between these two communities.

Kids are innocent, they do things whilst young and learn what is right and wrong, the kid that plays ball against your wall may one day realise that he was damaging your wiring, do you think that has occurred to him/her, I think the kid has more to worry about these days!

There are a lot of social pressures that exist on kids in our society today, so what that kid was throwing rocks, how do you know could be disabled or something... you are pinikety and you may say you are 27 but from the attitude you have displayed I'd say at best you live the existence of a 65 year old, hell why don't you just retire to Bulgaria I know you can buy houses over their for as little as £4000. If any kid plays football against your wall and ruins it, I'm sure its that cheap you can rebuild another for half the price... you really are a drama queen Mr So called 27 year old!

Answer 3

I'm not really sure it's indicative of British parenting (or lack thereof!) these issues are common in western cultures (America included if that is where you have been posted here from) and yes we do need to improve our track record on things like alcohol and drug use, teenage pregnancy etc but its not all down to the parenting, we have a wider societal responsibility for children and we are all failing the kids of today. Don't get me wrong, I have worked in youth justice for over eight years and parenting or familial issues (such as domestic violence etc) probably have had an impact on over 80% of the kids I have come into contact with in my time. What the McCanns did was wrong but what is worse is they have not publicly aknowledged that they broke the law - worse still they have publicly stated that what they did was 'well within the bounds of responsible parenting'. As a trainee social worker I can tell you that is absolutely not true, what they did is classified as wilful neglect and as such is illegal in the UK and social services will be speaking to them on their return to the UK. I think the governement have more of a role to play in fixing some of these issues - but a lot of parents could be doing better too and there should be more money invested in preventative social work - this concept is almost unheard of these days as social workers are under enough pressure 'fire fighting' in high risk cases.

Answer 4

The problem is discipline and the media, but also giving them things to do. It seems that kids now are sat in front of a tv from the age of 0 till they are 15. Then the parents let them out. During that time they are carried from place to place, and they are only shown how to behave on programs like Eastenders. This is not how they should behave.
The solution is that parents have to take responsibility and the law should act if they are not able to. Unfortunately the law is an *** a lot of the time, and once these kids enter the court system then they are lost forever.
When I was at school (I'm 30) you respected the teacher, and if you didn't you were thrown out and sent to the headmaster. He would either discipline you or suspend you or expel you. If you were expelled there was no appeal just goodbye. Now it is little Jonny who is the victim and who has rights - forget that. Teach him a lesson and not only him but all his friends will know about it

Answer 5

I have to agree with you on this. I spent many years in the navy and travelled to many country`s.
And for some reason the kids (not all) in this country don`t seem to give a toss about anything.
I suppose I am an oldish fogey (53) but I can remember when kids of my time did hang around street corners, did smoke and yes did swear.
But I can`t remember anytime when we sat drinking on street corners or in the park etc....
And we never used drugs - though there were a very small % that did.
Where I live, the kids are not bad except for the atrocious swearing which is even worse than I heard on the messdeck of ships.
When you think that the schoolteachers can no longer do to them what they did to us, the police have their hands tied, and some - not all - parents either don`t have any control over their kids or don`t give a toss anyway.

What a wonderful world isn`t it :-) :-)

Answer 6

People always assume that the answer to questions like this are not simple and that the government will have to spend millions of pounds on think tanks to somehow solve the problem over many decades, but to me its simple!

When I was a kid, If I threw rocks or whatever, a witnessing neighbour or resident would come out and get me! If they didn't give me a good hiding there and then, I would be dragged back to my parents and my parents would punish me. I rarely misbehaved because I knew there would be consequences.

These days, kids are so well aware of their rights. They do what ever they like because they know there will be no consequences. There was an article in the paper just the other day in which a women who tried to tell a group of yobs off who were outside her house, was in the end the one cautioned by the police for swearing at the yobs! WTF?!? And even if the parents find out, the parents usually don't give **** these days.

Even when these youths get to an age where they can be arrested, it doesn't matter because there are no punishments. My stepfather works driving prisoners to court, and he says they just don't care. Its nothing to them. He sees the same people going to court week after week and they never get prison, just small fines, community service and they laugh at it.
Did you know that in this country you are more likely to go to prison for not paying your council tax than for stabbing a stranger in the street? The law is a joke and geared towards Council profit and nothing more.

So the answer is simple- punish the little bastards. But with all the lefties in this country we all know that's never gonna happen. I intend to get the hell out of this country like hoards and hoards of other Brits and leave the liberal hippies to get beaten and stabbed by the very people they are trying to protect.

Answer 7

They are not being raised as yobs,they are barely being raised at all and they are turning into yobs as a result. Crap parents who are possibly 2nd or 3rd generation crap parents,no discipline allowed in school anymore and the police can't touch them really till they are over 18. What we need is a good sized-war we can send them all off to get slaughtered in, I think the French are having similar problems due to youth unemployment perhaps we can come to an arrangement with them......

Answer 8

It makes me laugh when I read, as in one answer here, that kids have nothing to do. Truth is, I think, is that they have too much to do. What with all the computers and technology around them. I may sound like an old fogey but when I was a kid we didn't have them and, yes, at times I got bored but we still made our own entertainment without causing too much, I hope, trouble. I did play out in the street and my ball did go in otehr people's gardens and I suppose I did annoy some with my antics. I couldn't see that then but I was a kid. Why the yobbish behaviour of so many kids these days. Well take a look at the influential programmes on TV. If you look at all the soap operas inundating the channels what do you see on them? Adults with a "screw you, I want and I will have" attitude. Too many people with bad attitudes are given glamorous status. Look at Big Brother and X factor auditions. The message from these is, behave outrageously and we will glamourise you. Ok, rebels have often been popular but these days it is seen to be the way to succeed. With that in mind is it any wonder we have the social problems we do?

Answer 9

British kids "these days" have no where to play because the governments over the last 30 years have sold off the playing fields.

They get moved on by the police for doing exactly as their parents did standing out side of the local shops.

Childhood has virtually been crimialised, too noisy, you get an ASBO. To many of you, you get moved on and told to disperse. Mis-behave you get locked up.

Soon kids will be sent to prision to be assilimated and released when they are fully functioning, emotionless adults.

Show some tolerance and actually remember what is was like when you were a teenager.

Answer 10

Kids watch to many American films. They get the impression that being a gangster and commiting crime gives them status. They try to act like American Kids. It also comes down to Parents not giving disipline and letting their young kids stay out till late hours. Also in Britain, teachers in school can't shout at their pupils, and are scared to take action incase they are accused of child abuse. The government doesn't do anything either. If a child commits a crime, they give them a warning and thats in. In countries like your saying, Bulgaria, the kids still have respect foe elders, and wont mess about as they know what their parents will do to them.

Parents, the British Govt, police, teachers should take more action against kids with bad bahaviour. ASBO's are a joke. We need something more severe.