Living In Fear?

[Tuxie]

This thread sort of follows along with the ‘General Disintegration of Society’ thread posted earlier.

I realize when I was a kid, things were A LOT different. Something my Mom said the other day started me thinking about this issue and I wanted to get some of your thoughts about it.

First, a little background. I was in the process of reeling in a garden hose when I noticed several kids in the neighbor’s backyard. They had jumped the fence in order to cut through my neighbor’s yard. I mentioned this to my Mom, along with the fact that I’d almost said something to these kids (something along the line of ‘You kids need to stay out of his yard’). My Mom responded like, “Oh, don’t do that… you don’t know what they’ll do!” She had a REAL fear that these kids could, and probably would, retaliate against her or us. This is NOT the same woman that raised me! Over time, it seems that kids have taken over rule over adults. What happened? :confused: When I was young, I the only fear I had was the fear of my Dad or Mom on my backside. But yet, I was never ‘abused’. :rolleyes: And the same thing applies for my kids. I tried to raise them to respect others… and respect authority. Kids today seem to have lost that.

Let’s open this up for discussion. Do you have any experiences you could share? Any thoughts?

[mashmac]

The other day I was pushing the stroller with my son in it and holding my daughter's hand going to the shops. An older lady was right behind me.
Out of nowhere - these kids ( between 10 and 13 I would say) cut our path at full speed on rollerblades and bikes, almost knocked down the lady and hit my stroller. Both me and her went nuts and told them off loudly but they just carried on without one look back. They couldn't care less.

Everyday, I am more and more appalled by such kids. No respect, no manners, nothing. They just couldn't care less. I do have the impression the situation is deteriorating - the basic rules of civilized interaction amongst people seem to be vanishing a bit more every day and yes fear seems to be creeping in with people rather keeping quiet than worrying about retaliation. And if those kids will be adults one day.

So if you can't afford to live in a more or less safe part of town - you will continuously worry. That's terrible. I am lucky to live in what you call a safe part of town but as you can see the place is still prone to accidents. I wouldn't wonder or stop in certain suburbs even during the day. Too scared.

I am not sure what else to tell you Tuxie, I don't know how it can change, I am not sure it can so we all keep on building walls around us and living more isolated from each other. I can only educate my kids the way I think is right but I guess some parents just don't care and let them run lose, It's all mad.

And I do think it's a parent's responsibility to educate - but as I said, some just don't or have given up. For various reasons I guess.

[aussiecoffee007]

i think kids nowadays are struggling with entitlement, they think that they are on an equal level to adults and not below them... like, they are under their parents care but their parents are people and dont always know whats right and make mistakes, and i think the more kisd are exposed to this idealogy the more they lose their general obedience level and becoem all retaliat..ative. :)

[Penguin_Woman]

I think it's horrid too. Kids these days have zero respect for authority. To make matters worse, their parents often don't use any. Parents these days (not all parents, of course. :D) Seem to go one extreme or the other. Either having no authority, no control over their children. Their kids run wild. the parents put the burden of supervision on other adults. (teachers, principle, store owners, friends parents etc) That or they cause their kids to fear them. They don't act out at home out of fear, not respect. Then they go and act out worse elsewhere. I've more thoughts on this later. :)

[Penguin_Woman]

Continuing my thoughts...

We are a lawsuit happy society, especially here in the U.S. Kids are even suing their parents or other adults. Adults today, parents...fear disciplining their kids. If they spank them, the child could start screaming "abuse". Next thing the parents know they've got "experts" crawling all around their house, they get the 3rd degree. They could be sued...or worse, put in jail. Parents even fear taking away privileges. Kids today have even been known to get physical with their parents or other adults. It's gotten so crazy, like in that one thread I posted, that adults feel they have to take extreme measures. Like handcuffing a six year old girl. Or, like in this "Dear Abby" article I read...this woman smashes her son's toys with a hammer in front of him because she cannot get her child under control and that seems to work. It's gotten insane...