Why do you think so many kids are so badly behaved?

[tikasaurois]

I'm mainly talking about high school age but I suppose kids of all ages are very different to when I was growing up (I'm 47) are we being too lax and not giving kids enough discipline? I'm a cleaner in a high school and honestly I find it disgusting how some children behave! Absolutely no respect or anyone or anything. Really rude, ignorant and downright disrespectful to everyone ( and I include the principal in this) why are the parents not doing more to reel their children in? Do parents not care? Are we as society failing these kids? Of course there are many wonderful well mannered children that are a pleasure to share company with but my question is why has behaviour deteriorated so much in schools and what can be done to help ?

@Sandwidged oh god yes!! The boys always got their penises out and would grab the girls and touch them. It was so common I actually forgot about it until you said 🤮

It's always been pretty crap to be fair.
There's just different challenges now.

I do think parents can be very soft to avoid conflict though.
Also, parents can be very quick to defend their children. Teachers don't really have a leg to stand on anymore.
We honestly have more problems with the parents than the children themselves.

I’m 33, the behaviour you are describing sounds like my secondary school!
One boy was seriously injured by older students, fires were set off in the science lab, a teacher got sacked from throwing around furniture, I suffered from horrendous bullying, the behaviour there was awful and this is over 20 years ago now!

Parents work so many hours these days their children would be lucky to pick them out of a police line up. Kids can't play iur anymore, cars rule the land now and they're kept indoors unable to explore their environments and learn effectively. They are also fed the lie that feeling dad about these things is due to something wrong with their brain inherently and to try masquerading as the opposite sex to see if it helps.

They are also more likely to be neurologically impaired by the volume of pollution in the air currently

No more need be said

Children might be more annoying now but most of them will grow up fine. Anti-social behaviour and substance abuse is on the decline amongst young adults, who are also more socially and environmentally aware than previous generations.

In previous generations, children were less obvious and visible because parents hit them when they misbehaved. So the threat of physical violence cowed them and kept them compliant, in public at least.

The worst behaved kids at our school are the ones with parents that yell obscenities at them in the street, so I'd imagine there's a link there.

Completely agree, we're heading for hell in a handcart with the poor parenting that these kids are receiving.

@KittensSchmittens there's definitely a link!

And this.

There are some great replies here, I don't think we have to analyse too deeply to figure out the reason lots of kids have no morals.

Too much screen time and misunderstanding parenting advice.

You are joking aren't you? I am in my 60s and the THREAT of corporal punishment was enough to keep the vast majority in line. We knew that if we misbehaved not only would we cop it from the school but parents too - because we had let them down by misbehaving.

It's all very well saying corporal punishment is wrong but absolutely nothing else is having any effect on misbehaviour. And no, I don't really know the answer tbh.

I'd say it's a mix of
1)poor parenting/poverty/life on benefits were parents have little incentive to work as their parents didn't etc (grew up in the 80s in a northern mining town-whole community decimated by the closures) yes I know this isn't the case for all on benefits. Argues with school on everything. Child can do no wrong.
2) middle class pandering where the child is never told no, never had to do chores and expects everything for nothing. Tiger mom who questions the school on everything. Child can do no wrong.
3)busy overworked parents too tired/stressed to fight so give in and again no boundaries

I'm a nursery teacher 15 years ago parents would never send their child in nappies. Just this year I've been told the following....

Yeah I just can't be arsed with this one, he's a nightmare and pisses everywhere.

If you're that bothered you do it because I'm not.

Kids who can't talk and addicted to YouTube. Kids who live off junk food and take away. Greggs for breakfast and maccy's for lunch is normal. Another child coming in at 8.45 eating a large tube of smarties for breakfast.

It probably won't be a popular view, but I can remember my schooldays SO clearly & didn't start acting up until I'd been let down by school. My children had EXACTLY the same. Broken promises all the time. 'Yes Fred, you can do this science GCSE.. oh sorry no, you can't because we're not running that one now..'

My ASD son ' we've found this great new place for you, come & see it & meet all the staff!' Goes to see school, nothing's said, I enquire 'Oh, no, we're not running that now, there's no place for him.'
Over & over again.

As for today's teens, I get on great with them. Respect goes both ways.

Are you in a bad school area?

Most kids around here are really good, hold park gate open etc. Obv teenagers are self absorbed it’s part of being a teenager.

At parents evening I have always asked about the behaviour of my kids and they know of it was negative feedback there would be consequences

I think it's gentle parenting. My sibling does it. Thinks I'm far too harsh on my kids but mine can be taken anywhere and behave. Theirs breaks things rolls on the floor of restaurants or other public places, shouts screams, hits etc but they think DC just being a kid. DC has even broken their TV by throwing something at it. DC is 7.

The use of corporal punishment on children has been linked with increased levels of aggression, antisocial behaviour, depression, substance abuse and other harmful effects when those children become adults.

Kids being more annoying seems a reasonable price to pay to move away from this, even if it means that they do sometimes disturb adults in public.

Kids have always been naughty. Teachers were more feared back in the day. Kids were scared to misbehave. That’s the difference.

I’ve worked with teenagers for 30+ years. IME the most challenging are no more difficult than they ever were and often have the same legitimate reasons. However there are an additional bigger proportion today who are rude and entitled and are not keen on following instructions. They won’t be throwing chairs or doing drugs in the toilets perhaps, but they can make life difficult for others. They will likely be a bit better as they mature.

Parents work so many hours these days their children would be lucky to pick them out of a police line up and yet Jezza Hunt wants parents to work MORE!

I agree with some other posters - the behaviour is better in recent years (less drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancy, under age sex (boring gits) ) but the rudeness is 10000% worse.

I'd rather be working with kids doing drugs in the loo than the rude shit I encounter in my line of work.

To get some perspective it's a few generations since children were beaten at school and at home.

What is sad to see is these "badly behaved" kids are not stupid. They do realise when at school there are things they don't have. They know that their parents are letting them down, they feel angry and conflicted, and they also feel trapped. They will do anything to make an impression even a bad one. Being bad will get parental attention.

School may bore them, but it's their lives outside that shape them.

And, for what it’s worth, I do think it seems to follow a pattern that people look back on their past with rose tinted glasses & so their comparisons with the modern world are more than slightly skewed. Naughty children - it’s not a new thing