"Kids these days" threads...

[nightandthecity]

I was recently at my sister's house. It's in a leafy suburb, quite gentrified. A friend of my nephew was there and it was time for him to go home. His mother drove over to pick him up...he lives about 1/2 A MILE AWAY!!!!! They were too scared to let a 15 year old boy walk home at 6pm just on dusk. This is not some violent slum, but a respectable part of town where houses are worth 400 grand minimum, and there are more police patrols than Soviet Russia...unbelievable stuff, how are they supposed to learn independence..at that kid's age I was travelling alone across the deserts of the outback. No wonder they only play football on screens..their bloody mummies won't let them out...God help us.

..now you are talking a REAL modern problem. There are certainly places in Britain which aren't safe for anyone - kids or adults. I have lived in a couple of the worst. But some of the nice middle-class urban parents I meet really do seem to think they are living in Fort Apache, when they quite clearly aren't.

Fortunately, in the rural area where I live it's different: the kids play out in the woods, they go down our small town together and hang out.....the parents don't get in a flap, and by and large the sky doesn't fall in.

 

[jamespowers]

Kids are what their parents make them, and if parents want to make their kide their friend, then that is what they will be.

Across all generations people often say that kids dont have respect for adults, but today more and more parents I know want to be their friends buddy instead of parent. I see so many arguments where an 11 year old argues with their mom about why they should not get them that $300 game system. What!?

That is what singes my rump these days. Kids arnt afreaid of their parents anymore. I dont mean the "Im gonna hit you" afraid I mean the "I odnt have to listen to you cause if you decipline me Ill call someone".

Also technology has made kids have their own world where parents just dont want to learn about it because they feel it's 'over their head'. If you are afreaid of what you dont want to learn, then dont get mad when it gets out of control.


LD

Another one that hits it right on the head. I agree completely.
Children in previous generations may have thought bad things about their elders but they wouldn't come out and tell them off or talk like their face to them. They at least had that much respect---that and a good amount of fear too.
Now without morals or repect but a good amount of knowledge concerning how to get over on everyone, they are the educated monsters Teddy Roosevelt warned us about over 100 years ago. [huh]

Regards,

J

 

[Sefton]

Kids these days are the same as adults these days...
"We have met the enemy and he is us". Pogo by Walt Kelly

 

[jamespowers]

Kids these days are the same as adults these days...
"We have met the enemy and he is us". Pogo by Walt Kelly

That makes sense because it is those adults who made them what they are and that is clearly the problem---slouching toward Gamorah.

Regards,

J

 

[Jack Scorpion]

I think there is a difference. "Back in the day," adults were 90% of the consumer market. Adults were any ad-campaign's target audience. Today, the percentages have shifted. Advertisement has shifted toward the youth and the consumer market is looking more and more like a very 25yearsorless 90%.

Hard to compare.

That isn't to say that kids today are any worse. However, they probably are.

 

[jamespowers]

That isn't to say that kids today are any worse. However, they probably are.

I think we really have to quantify what we mean as worse. Do we use the teenage pregnancy, drug use, number of arrests for crimes, drunk driving etc. stats? What year do we use as a base say 1950?

Regards,

J

 

[Viola]

I think we really have to quantify what we mean as worse. Do we use the teenage pregnancy, drug use, number of arrests for crimes, drunk driving etc. stats? What year do we use as a base say 1950?

Regards,

J

Don't forget violent crime is on a general downslide from the '70s. Now those were some bad kids. Glad I wasn't there to see it. lol

 

[jamespowers]

Don't forget violent crime is on a general downslide from the '70s. Now those were some bad kids. Glad I wasn't there to see it. lol

Yep, you gotta love the long-haired, dope-smoking, maggot-infested, Hippie types. :eusa_doh:
Now if you want to trace the trends in stats that would probably be the demarkation point. I would still start at 1950 though. The most inportant changes came when the soldiers came back and started families wanting to give their children everything they never had. [huh] It spoiled a generation or three.

Regards,

J

 

[Viola]

Yep, you gotta love the long-haired, dope-smoking, maggot-infested, Hippie types. :eusa_doh:

I insist that you stop talking about my parents this instant!:rage:

 

[Rosie]

a) Isn't that the normal function of puberty? What am I missing here?[huh]

I'm not saying how their bodies change normally with puberty. I have girls in my school with women's bodies at 10, 11, 12. Girls that when they say "I'm 12" Everyone is like . In my opinion, a lot of the children I come into contact with don't look their age, at least not the way 9, 10, 11 year olds looked when I was that age.

 

[Feraud]

Funny, the kids don't annoy me as much as the adults do these days. I guess it's because I have very little to do with them. Yeah, they're loud, rude, obnoxious, self-centered, and poorly dressed, but so are the adults who should know better.

Regards,

Senator Jack

I will echo these words. It is not the children that are worse today but the parents, teachers, and leaders. The adults dress like slobs, do not demand respect from their children, are more concerned with "hooking up" than parenting, etc.
Why should a child respect/fear someone like that? I wouldn't!!
What would you expect from a generation obsessed with being "youthful".

 

[Viola]

I'm not saying how their bodies change normally with puberty. I have girls in my school with women's bodies at 10, 11, 12. Girls that when they say "I'm 12" Everyone is like . In my opinion, a lot of the children I come into contact with don't look their age, at least not the way 9, 10, 11 year olds looked when I was that age.

I guess since that was me at 12 I don't see much wrong there. I'm smaller now (same shoe size, though, drat) than I was at 13. Girls have always matured quickly in my family.

I remember just a couple years ago hearing a girl my age say "you know, how when you were 16 and your figure started to change..."

My best friend, sister, and I were just like, "No. By 16 everything was done changed. Remember being 10 and not able to jump rope anymore?"

 

[Tourbillion]

I just looked at my elementary school yearbook, and there were no fat kids in my grade, one in grade 5, and 2 in grade 6. That's right, a K-6 school in the 1970's with 3 fat kids. There were maybe 4-6 kids per grade that were in the 95th plus percentile, with slightly chubby cheeks, or thicker middles, but nothing that most parents would worry about. Everyone else was normal or really skinny.

Now, every day I see toddlers running around with waists as big as mine, they look like little dwarfs. I see 8 year olds with pot bellies that belong on their grandparents. Skinny kids are still around, just not in the numbers you used to see.

I admit to eating every bad food in the world as a kid. I was still skinny, I was 5'9" and 100 lbs at the start of high school. I drank about a half a gallon of chocolate milk daily, drank soda, ate McDonald's, fried Mexican food, sweets etc. Actually I ate like that until I was about 30. I was a moderately active kid, walked to/from school, took dance classes, etc. I made my mom buy me bras for school (actually triangles with elastic straps) because I was embarrassed to not need them (until age 16-17 when I was entirely overcompensated in that category).

I might be a freak, but it isn't just the food the makes today's kids fat, unless today's kids pig out more than I did (which is a frightening thought).

It used to be a hallmark of adolescence to be skinny and awkward.
Not anymore, today's kids are severely overweight and awkward.

Today's kids are going to have severe heath and self image issues when they get a little older. Heart disease at 25 or 30 and early death, then super-size coffins.

I don't think that most parents (or schools) are equipped to implement the kind of radical lifestyle changes that are needed to get today's kids back to normal. I wish I had a solution, but the problem is bigger than the kids (and their parents).

 

[LizzieMaine]

I might be a freak, but it isn't just the food the makes today's kids fat, unless today's kids pig out more than I did (which is a frightening thought).
(

I think that's exactly the problem, actually -- or at least a big part of it. They *do* pig out more than we did -- because the portions of junk food they're getting are a lot larger than the ones we had. A kid who drinks two twenty-ounce bottles of soda a day is drinking twice as much as a 70's kid who drank two ten-ounce bottles of the same soda. A kid who walks away from the McDonald's counter with a "super sized" meal is getting a lot more fat and grease that a 70's kid with a regular burger, small fries, and small shake. A kid tucking into a "stuffed crust" double-meat-and-cheese pizza is sucking down a lot more calories than a '70s kid who had to settle for a thin crust pizza with a couple of toppings and not so much cheese that you couldn't see the tomato sauce.

We've let the Boys from Marketing turn us into a nation of gluttons -- by not having the common sense to say NO when the super-size-me craze came around. And now we're seeing the results of that.

I love greasy fast food a lot more than I should -- but I've got the common sense not to order anything labeled "Meatnormous" or "Super Biggie" or "Cheeztacular" or whatever other gimmick they come up with. I have enough common sense not to be led by the snout to the hog trough by slick ad campaigns. And for those that don't -- well, who's to blame?

 

[Atomic Glee]

I love greasy fast food a lot more than I should -- but I've got the common sense not to order anything labeled "Meatnormous" or "Super Biggie" or "Cheeztacular" or whatever other gimmick they come up with.

Meatnormous = Best. Word. Ever.

I'll be laughing at that one for some time.

 

[Lena_Horne]

I think that's exactly the problem, actually -- or at least a big part of it. They *do* pig out more than we did -- because the portions of junk food they're getting are a lot larger than the ones we had. A kid who drinks two twenty-ounce bottles of soda a day is drinking twice as much as a 70's kid who drank two ten-ounce bottles of the same soda. A kid who walks away from the McDonald's counter with a "super sized" meal is getting a lot more fat and grease that a 70's kid with a regular burger, small fries, and small shake. A kid tucking into a "stuffed crust" double-meat-and-cheese pizza is sucking down a lot more calories than a '70s kid who had to settle for a thin crust pizza with a couple of toppings and not so much cheese that you couldn't see the tomato sauce.

We've let the Boys from Marketing turn us into a nation of gluttons -- by not having the common sense to say NO when the super-size-me craze came around. And now we're seeing the results of that.

I love greasy fast food a lot more than I should -- but I've got the common sense not to order anything labeled "Meatnormous" or "Super Biggie" or "Cheeztacular" or whatever other gimmick they come up with. I have enough common sense not to be led by the snout to the hog trough by slick ad campaigns. And for those that don't -- well, who's to blame?

The ingredients have also changed drastically with a lot more genetic modification and artificial "flavorings" and colorings. Look in your cupboard--or any cupboard--and count the products with High Fructose Corn Syrup in them. Companies really cheaped out with that one back in the seventies. It also changes the way our bodies gain weight.

L_H

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

The ingredients have also changed drastically with a lot more genetic modification and artificial "flavorings" and colorings. Look in your cupboard--or any cupboard--and count the products with High Fructose Corn Syrup in them. Companies really cheaped out with that one back in the seventies. It also changes the way our bodies gain weight.

L_H

That article is fascinating! Now we are trying to make fuel out of corn as well, so called "sustainable" ethanol. Problem - fuel is required to make the ethanol, and it's my understanding that it's a net-negative, ie, a waste, and not particularly clean. fftopic:

 

[jamespowers]

I insist that you stop talking about my parents this instant!:rage:

Hahahahah! I guess I am lucky my parents were of an older generation than that. My father graduated from high school in 1948 while my mother graduated in 1955. They definitely had a different idea about what was necessary to raise a child correctly.

Regards,

J

 

[jamespowers]

Meatnormous = Best. Word. Ever.

I agree completely. Meat---its what's for dinner, lunch and breakfast.
I don't think children are really fat due to what they eat when you think about how much more active we were as children. Video games!? What was that?
We played sports, hung out with our friends ran around until we couldn't anymore and then dragged ourselves home for dinner that we just had to have. Meatnormous is what we needed then to keep from collapsing.
Nowadays, parents are scared to death to let the children stray from their doorstep five feet. They can't get any excercise that way. [huh] What are they going to do to burn the calories run back and forth fifty times per minute?
The difference is that when we were children our parents would kick us out of the house to go play not sit in front of the TV---and believe me I liked that too. Now parents are happy to know where the children are every second of the day---which is in front of the TV or computer. It just seems unnatural. I can really understand the Goth craze now. They are so pale from never going outside they just decided to go with it. [huh]

Regards,

J

 

[Paisley]

I think part of the problem started in the 90s when people went on high-carb diets: lots of pasta and bread. They're made of grain. Grain is what you feed cattle when you want to fatten them up. Now many of the young adults of the 90s are fat 30-somethings who have fat kids. If you doubt that the kids' weight has anything to do with the parents, look at most dogs who belong to fat families: they're fat, too.