Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

What the hell has happened to teenagera

31 replies

TerryWogansWilly · 23/04/2019 16:24

Where are the spotty ones with bad makeup and poor dress sense and terrible braces?

Has YouTube taken the awkward stage away from them?

It's very sad for them. They need that stage. It's character building.

OP posts:
MrsTerryPratchett · 23/04/2019 16:29

IME they're much nicer than you used to get. Helpful, kind, clean and tidy. Less drunk and sulky than I teenagers used to be.

CigarsofthePharoahs · 23/04/2019 16:35

The teenagers and young adults I know are all lovely. I was a grotty oik at that age and my compatriots were just as bad.

HisNameIsJames · 23/04/2019 16:44

Mine are kind sometimes and helpful under duress. They are also quite lazy, messy, rude, ungrateful, sulky, painfully woke, self absorbed and a bit spotty. I think they are doing exactly what I’d expect from teens. They can be sweet and very funny and it’s great to see them forming their own opinions and preferences. I love them but they can be a pain to live with - dh and I were taking a stroll to get a break from the bickering at the weekend and bumped into friends of ours from up the road who were doing exactly the same thing to get away from their teens Grin).

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

HisNameIsJames · 23/04/2019 16:46

Oh others people’s teens are usually delightful, doesn’t mean they aren’t little snots for their parents - have none of you seen the Harry’s Enfield Kevin sketches?! Thank you Mrs Patterson.

RockinHippy · 23/04/2019 18:54

They get that out of the way at about 11/12yrs these days🤷🏽‍♀️

RosaWaiting · 23/04/2019 19:07

"They need that stage. It's character building."

I never had it and I'm very glad I didn't!

yellowalstroemeria · 23/04/2019 19:18

They're all so groomed. I felt ugly enough and my peers had bright orange faces and white necks. I'd hate to be young now.

Heatherjayne1972 · 23/04/2019 19:42

We would have been ultra groomed too if everything ended up on social media when we were young

crocsaretoocoolforschool · 23/04/2019 19:44

My dd has severe acne -the YouTube generation is not helpful!

Lots of bright orange teens seem to attend our local high school though

Sparklingbrook · 23/04/2019 19:46

I am very glad I am not a teenager in 2019. I did not have poker straight very long hair which seems to be a must now. Grin

Also I was not as sensible as my teenagers are now.

RoseDog · 23/04/2019 19:50

Where are the spotty ones with bad makeup and poor dress sense and terrible braces?

This was my dd age 13/14 maybe a bit of 15, shes 16 now and still has acne but can now do her make up properly and her teeth are lovely and straight thanks to the NHS and a couple of years of braces.

The growing trend among her peers, which thankfully she hasn't copied, is fake tan and slug type eyebrows, terrifying!!

OhMyGodTheyKilledKenny · 23/04/2019 19:50

Teenagers these days seem to lack variety, they seem to be cloned appearance-wise. There's much less quirkiness or uniqueness compared to when I was a teen in the 80s.

Aragog · 23/04/2019 19:51

Braces seem to be done younger to some extent, and off by about 14y.

The spots are still there but many teens seem so much better with skin care and applying make up these days. Some seem to spend hours on it. Some of the make up DD and her friends own I have no idea what it is supposed to be used for, or even where it goes on your face! DD doesn't really wear much but some of her friends are like proper make up artists with their skills!

There are plenty still with the dodgy orange make up with tide marks, and those weird huge black eye brow things!

And I am sure there will be some fashions they will look back on with one of those huge raised eye brow.

PinkieTuscadero · 23/04/2019 19:51

Yeah, yeah, they may look gorgeous but it comes at far too high a price.................being an Ed fucking Sheeran fan.

He makes Val Doonican look like Iggy Pop.

Aragog · 23/04/2019 19:52

The boys seem to be very groomed these days too - much more than the teen boys when I was growing up it feels.

Stuckforthefourthtime · 23/04/2019 19:53

There's much less quirkiness or uniqueness compared to when I was a teen in the 80s

Isn't this just what older generations have said forever? Along with their music being rubbish and their manners execrable...

10PercentMoreBanana · 23/04/2019 19:56

As a teacher,I hear you. Teens seem more mature, style-savvy and considerate than I ever was.

Meanwhile, here I am... 35 and in the corner looking like a potato wrapped in a hanky.

AgathaF · 23/04/2019 19:57

They look so groomed, really perfect in some cases. Apart from the slug eyebrows - not a good look.

teyem · 23/04/2019 19:58

I can't help feeling that I lucked out being a teen in the nineties - when a pair of jeans, a brush and a dab of barely there makeup saw me though pretty much all my social occasions. I don't think I'd have done very well among this crowd.

EdWinchester · 23/04/2019 19:59

Well the girls seem mostly to have terrifying levels of make-up on, with fake lashes and gruesome brows. Plus duck face pouts in a million selfies.

This will be their equivalent of twilight teaser and a perm.

OhMyGodTheyKilledKenny · 23/04/2019 20:00

Isn't this just what older generations have said forever? Along with their music being rubbish and their manners execrable...

..now you come to mention it, some of the music they listen to is tuneless drivel

BackforGood · 24/04/2019 00:23

Maybe you need to get off social media and out of the shopping centres.
There's plenty of teens out and about living life without make up, and dressing practically for what they are doing, rather than 'fashion'.

TerryWogansWilly · 24/04/2019 00:50

The music is objectively terrible. I do think they are less unique than in the past. Suppose it's to be expected as they live in a more global world. I wonder if regional terminology will still be a thing in 30 years.

OP posts:
TreacherousPissFlap · 24/04/2019 01:27

I've mentioned this to DH, but more than the good grooming, it's the common sense and work ethic that baffles me.

Granted DS can fester in his bed till 11am, but generally he's up and at it. His homework is very important, he works hard at his Sunday job and he is utterly confident that his adult life will involve neither drinking or smoking (he didn't answer when I mentioned drugs, just gave me a withering look)

It's so far removed from my teenage years and probably my adult years come to think of it

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 24/04/2019 05:18

Yeah, the work ethic freaks me out. Also DD and DSIL are only 3 years out of their teens and already successfully running a family. We help with advice and a bit of transport, but I'm amazed at how sorted they are.