AIBU to feel uneasy about teens congregating outside shops?

I don't know.... I think modern teens are a lot more open and honest about their different interests.

I work with teenagers, they generally tend to be lovely on an individual basis. They just appear intimidating as a group but they really aren’t generally.

They have always done this.

I'm sure plenty of them do like it; but if you're trying to look and act 'cool', you probably wouldn't rush to admit that you're enjoying it. Kids and teenagers who aren't trying to project a 'hard' image may well unashamedly enjoy it.

I think their body language makes a big difference, whatever their age. People sometimes worry that, if they aren't already occupying themselves some way, they could be looking at you to provide their 'entertainment'.

True, it's not all of them; but the ones who do act like this are the main problem imho. If they're just gathered and amusing/enjoying themselves, I don't really see an issue - although I would wonder why they'd chosen a shop and not a park or similar.

Agree with this. The chuggers are far worse. I'm sure there are some of the kids that are being deliberately intimidating, but most of them are just hanging out. It's just preconception.

I was doing this in the 60s. They too will grow out of it. Scuse me lads!

@itsgettingweird I remember the spokey dokeys in cereal packets!

As Rowan Atkinson said about teenagers in The Thin Blue Line: “I admit we don’t like them, but if it were illegal to be sex mad, tone deaf and impossible to understand, we would have to arrest the entire population of France.” In those days (mid 90s), people frowned at them because the boys were skinheads, and the girls were popping babies out all the time. (With the boys’ help, of course.)

I remember a time my mum told off a gang of teenagers who were messing about on a train: she ranted at them in her best teacher voice, saying “I shall not hesitate to get the guard” (back when trains had guards, and if they do exist now, they are powerless). I was eleven or twelve at the time, I think this was one of my biggest “embarrassing parent” moments. I think they did “melt away” after that, but they were much bigger than her. But I saw first-hand “dispersal of teenagers” in action.

There are lots of things teens do that aren’t easy to understand to be honest!

Hanging around isn’t a new thing. Every day after school from the age of 14-16, I hung around outside the ‘cheapie’ which was our local corner shop. There’d be loads of us there every day- that was where all the gossip happened and people asking each other out etc. Most of us were harmless and the shopkeeper was very nice. He was friendly but firm - wasn’t afraid to tell us off if we were getting in the way of people using the pavement/swearing loudly etc.

Mind you we were lucky to also have a really good local youth club- it’s a shame kids today don’t have that resource in most areas.

Why?

I agree they can be intimidating, but in my experience they normally back down pretty quickly if you stand and confront them, l normally go with" l know your mum do you want me to call her?."
However we live in a small town so that probably wouldnt work well in a large city.

Why are you scared of teenagers? Do you have the same problem asking school mums to stop blocking the path, or pensioners to move up in a bus stop? What about toddlers when they’re hogging the slides? I find all of those groups rude at times.

They’re hanging out in a well lit area, with adults nearby. Feels fairly sensible to me, tbh.

A lot of teens look scary but are mostly hugely self conscious and actually quite shy. Once a teenager in a group chucked a stone at my car as I drove past...I stopped, got out and shouted at him. He looked totally petrified and apologised!

I was in a McDonald's that was playing classical music.
The table with about 8 teens sat near me were discussing it and saying to each other what classical music they like.
It's hilariously patronising to think teens don't like classical music 😂

Just use your "Mum voice" - breezy excuse me please
I ended up having a very interesting conversation about the merits of various donuts in sainsburys when I asked a group of black clad teenage boys to let me get to the display
Most of them who look scary arent really. My DS and his friends are very "naice" MC boys but they are all big and mostly wear black so you might well cross the road to avoid them.

Free Wi-Fi.

I think older people gather together to spend time with friends all the time and no one thinks anything of it. What the teens are doing is no different to when my elderly dm meets up with her walking group, but people just interpret it differently.

I'm just not sure it's unnerving, if you aren't assuming teens are up to something negative.

Built not all groups of teens are doing this.

Many of them near shops here seem to be huddled round someone's phone watching videos

I don’t understand why they hang around shops though.

I don't think people are necessarily assuming the worst of them; but it is an unnerving thing to do.

If you saw a group of middle-aged or elderly people hanging about outside a corner shop - not really doing anything and engaging with each other and enjoying themselves, but just standing there in silence, or using bad and aggressive language, and staring at everybody walking past, I don't think most people would find that positive either. It's just that older people don't ever tend to do this.

I love that idea!

There used to be a high-frequency sound which only young people could hear which some councils/shops used.

I can't bear how hostile it seems acceptable to be to teens. A group of kids hanging out aren't doing any harm. They are members of society with as much right to use public spaces as anyone else.

I'll admit, they shouldn't we swearing, but I wonder how much the op's negative attitude to them showed?

There's this myth that teens are awful, but I have teens and I work with teens, and I think they get an unfair reputation.

In the 70s, we had 3 youth clubs in our town, Methodist, C of E and Catholic. They would compete for our custom. The Catholics won out because they had a record player and the priest could play guitar.