UK teenagers are awful

I wouldn’t say the UK is worse than all of continental Europe, but it’s worse than countries we fancy we are comparable to (by GDP at least). Eg, Ireland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Scandinavia. Compared to these the UK has a worse standard of living for most people, worse antisocial behaviour, worse inequality, worse public services. If you’re in the top 5-10% of high incomes then the UK is good. If you’re not you’d be better off born in one of those aforementioned. It’s a very unequal country by European standards. Thatcherism correctly identified some of the issues the UK faced but the solutions were simplistic, shortsighted - basically wrong.

I live in a European country; I visit UK about every 6 weeks.
There is a massive difference.

While groups of teens do hang about here and there is some ASB (mostly scooters and mopeds around streets late at night) there is never the air of intimidation, threat and gang mentality like in UK.
The kids here have respect for their elders and the police. They enjoy community events and are actively involved. They are still kids for longer. They have strong ties to the community long after they have left the village and return each summer to get involved.
It really does take a village to raise a child here - kids know that if their parents don’t catch and punish them for doing wrong someone else will with no woke brigade to debate the whys and wherefores of that.

In stark contrast; the balaclava clad, North Face bubble wearing, man bag carrying, pre pubescent wannabe gangstas lurk in the villages terrorising passers by with no fear of the police and parents that don’t know or care where they are. They have no respect for authority, their elders or others.
In my town the good teens far outweigh the bad ones but it’s the bad ones that are lawless wrecking parks and gardens with no consequences.

Because children can’t be discriminated against in a workplace, mainly.

I agree that it's likely lack of facilities and a bleak looking future in deprived areas. The weather doesn't help.

YABU

i have 2 teenagers and neither them nor any of their friends have vandalised playparks

May I mention if we are generalising plenty of awful people of my own age group (62) -totally self interested, bigoted, rude to staff and generally unpleasant- I see plenty of them out there here in town every day -

Currently on holiday in zurich where we used to live and honestly the difference with the UK is shocking. Not only does it feel so so much safer but life is not on a knife edge. By comparison, we now live in one of the super naice villages in SELondon....and here local volunteers have set up patrols after school to stop school kids being constantly mugged for their phones. Parks do get vandalized and what is it with all the masks.

@Blueybanditbingochilli oh I agree with that-

@zeddybrek I agree with that- there are a ton of lousy and utterly disinterested parents out there and the fact we have to be 'all understanding' towards shitty behaviour-

Yes yes of course op your anecdotal evidence proves unequivocally that every teenager in the uk is a vile hooligan. You MUST be right. Every German teenager is a paragon.

I await your dc / gdc becoming teenagers. Then come back and tell us what shits they all are.

fyi I live 75m from a large playground and 150m from a skate park both of which are well used and respected. I hope that helps.

why is it okay to apply negative stereotypes to children and not older adults then?

so if you're saying all babies are manipulative and all toddlers are brats then that is a problem.

So discussing ‘tantrumming toddlers’ is ageist?

No I’m talking about where the culture began, because I don’t think this batch of teens have been born inherently bad. Everyone is born the same, it’s the culture they grow up in.

not if you're applying a negative stereotype to the entire group

@Blueybanditbingochilli it has nothing to do with Labour- this bunch of teens have grown up 100% under the Tory's

Well we can’t discuss ‘babies’ or ‘toddlers’ then can we?

Tbh I agree.

I think something has happened in the UK. When labour were in power last time, they fostered a public attitude of entitlement through generous benefits and a notion that you are a worthy individual who should be well looked after and pandered to by the state, even if you give nothing back.

Public facing roles are also gagged from saying perfectly reasonable things for fear of complaints. Schools can’t tell a parent the reason their kid struggles to concentrate is because they live off chips and Tango Ice Blasts, not because they need an urgent ADHD assessment. They can’t tell somebody who endlessly pesters the GP with fictional ailments to stop calling unless there’s a genuine issue as they’re a nuisance. They can’t tell the person outraged they can’t get a 4 bed council house that maybe they should’ve thought about that before having 7 kids and not to have any more as they can’t afford it.

It’s a culture of pandering which has got massively out of hand and the public play the system as they ‘know their rights’.

We have trouble with some teens in our area but it's a tiny minority. Still awful outcomes though

UK teenagers are awful

so we have Ageism :

1. prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's age.

and racism

In the Equality Act, race can mean your colour, or your nationality (including your citizenship).

Let's not judge massive groups of people based on characteristics that they cannot change.

Thats what I call ‘Soft touch’…children in other very less well off countries who are also way less fortunate than our children, have no future to look forward to, are more well behaved than ours.

Stop giving them excuses to be badly behaved and disrespectful of public property and others and authority in general . It is all down to their upbringing and the culture of blame and entitlement.

YANBU - I live in what is classed as a nice area. All the parks & under cover areas are full of feral teens. Just last night they’ve popped all the zorbs in the local park & left loads of broken glass. If I go on a weekend morning there’s empty Pringles can, beer cans & added usually are a couple of used condoms.

I’m quite unflappable but walking my dog I often feel intimidated.

It's obviously not all teens, but there seems to be a great central west Scotland tradition of sizable numbers of them making the lives of the rest of the population miserable. And thanks to recent SNP policies they are completely untouchable.
I feel really sorry for any decent teens that have to share schools with them.

I used to work with teens. A controversial view but I think there is zero accountability for being a rubbish parent. If a teen is awful;

It's the governments fault.
It's the teachers fault.
It's the headteachers fault.
It's the police who are at fault.
Society in general.
No opportunities.
Not enough support from xyz.
Why are you picking on them!

Why is it unacceptable to say awful teens can be the outcome of poor parenting. We don't hear this enough in my opinion.

I'm talking about the majority here.

I used to speak with parents of awful teens and ended up feeling sorry for them because many had no role model, no boundaries and parents with all sorts of issues.

My teens would be disgusted at that behaviour. My teens are well brought up by decent parents and grandparents. They have respect for their environment.

The teens you speak of are poorly brought up. Tbh, you can see how when you look at their lousy poorly-spoken, scruffy, tattooed parents. Those same parents drop litter and swear at you if you call them out.

Low standards ppl OP.