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Behaviour/development

Why do teenagers trash my local playground during school hours ?

15 replies

yellowrose · 07/03/2007 14:26

I have just returned home after observing 2 boys and a girl (I would say between 15 - 16 years old) trash my normally immaculate, new playground.

They were sitting on the ground throwing cigarette butts at each other.

They left after seeing 2 adult men who look after the park walk in.

I spent a good 5 minutes clearing the playground of cig. butts, pieces of paper, pens and squashed sweets, so that the small childrem could play in a clean playground.

Why do they sit on the ground of a playground, the playground only has things for small children - up to say 6 years old. Everything is too small to be suitable for a teenager. There was loads of space in the surrounding park with empty benches, yet they chose the playground. Why were they not in school any way ?

I used to go to another playground in a park in a very nice part of North London. On two occassions another woman and I spent 10 minutes picking up pieces of bottles that had been deliberatley broken all over the ground. Ds nearly walked into some very nasty looking glass. They had also burned the little house at the top of the toddler slide. Newspaper had been thrown in and set alight. The other women said it was local teenagers.

Any ideas why this kind of behaviour is so prevalent ?

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yellowrose · 07/03/2007 15:02

No one has had their playground trashed ?

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Bozza · 07/03/2007 15:04

I went with the DCs on Saturday and there were empty carling cans and WKD bottles lying around. Is it really that difficult to put in the bin that is provided?

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expatinscotland · 07/03/2007 15:08

They hang around the playground of a park in a posh area of Edinburgh as well.

Why do they not have park wardens anymore?

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yellowrose · 07/03/2007 15:08

That's what I mean Bozza ! Why do I have to clean the place for ds who is only 2.8 because someone else comes and deliberately trashes the place ? Haven't they got anything better to do ?

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yellowrose · 07/03/2007 15:09

May be I should offer to become park warden, I wonder if they would pay me as I am so good at cleaning the place ?

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expatinscotland · 07/03/2007 15:09

These teens get on the swings and take them over when there are small children waiting for them and the swings are too small to safely accommodate them.

I have no problem telling them to move on.

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AlanasMum · 07/03/2007 15:10

I've stopped going to one play park after my daughter fell near som dog poo! it's not just teeenagers that don't think or care

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yellowrose · 07/03/2007 15:12

Yeh, I know what you mean about dogs. I have a problem with inconsiderate dog owners as well.

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Bozza · 07/03/2007 15:13

Also the swings were all wrapped around the bars.

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expatinscotland · 07/03/2007 15:13

It's disrepectful, to say the least, but what reap what we sow, and we've sown some very nasty ME, ME, ME and 'there is no society' seeds for the past 25 years and are now reaping a bumper crop.

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yellowrose · 07/03/2007 15:17

Dead true exapt. No way will I allow ds to behave like that when he is school age. He will have some harsh words if he does anything that anti-social. I don't like dogs, so no problem with collecting dog poo !

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kslatts · 07/03/2007 16:04

This really annoys me, our local playground was re-furbished last year and lots of exciting near thing added, within a week of it being finished there was grafitti all over it.

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yellowrose · 07/03/2007 16:12

Bloody awful. I know there are worse disasters in the world, i.e. famine, starvation, war, etc. so defo. not my no. one worry, but still irritating when you have small children and expect to have somewhere nice and clean to play.

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RubberDuck · 07/03/2007 16:15

This is one of the reasons I don't go to our local playgrounds anymore I use my National Trust membership to visit the playground at our local property or they play in the back garden instead. Wish I could afford a decent climbing frame.

Local playgrounds are a disgrace.

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yellowrose · 07/03/2007 16:18

Good point Rubber. May be I will take up membership too.

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