Riots - is it all the parents fault?

[MichaelaS]

Right, throwing out a potentially controversial idea then scuttling off to bed before it blows up.

The riots seem to mostly involve teenagers. People on the TV (so it must be true, right?) have been asking what their parents are doing, why they're letting their kids out at that sort of time etc. Appeals from police to report your child if they turn up with unusual electrical items in the middle of the night.

So, is it all the fault of the parents? Do well brought up kids ever do this sort of stuff, barring severe mental illness such as being a sociopath.

AIBU to think that, mostly, it is the fault of the upbringing that these well fed, clothed and healthy teenagers feel disenfranchised and poor even though they are amongst the top 10% of the worlds rich because they are not starving and have somewhere to sleep. MN jury, your verdict please!

And on that note, i'm off to bed! enjoy.....

I think you have a point with some of the rioters. In my work I work with some parents who actively encourage their children to steal, to jeer at the police and to look at people who go out every day and do ordinary jobs as idiots. Some of the rioters will probably have parents like this - although I am sure not all. Of course these types of parents are to blame.

Messymama, yes it is sociey's fault. As you have said the bad fairies didn't come round and wreck these areas, it didn't happen overnight. It took time and as the people who live there are "Chavs" and "Scum" nothing was done about it. When the good people who live there do the right thing, they suffer for it and not just at the hands of gansters. So if doing the right thing puts you and your family at risk, why bother? If society refers to you and your friends as feral, chavvy scum just because of where you live, calls your parents scroungers and blames them for all society's ills, why respect it?

I don't think for one minute that if I went around doing that in a nice area I would get away with it. You have a point there, but it has to do with the area, not the person. In a nice area, if you call the police they come, in a bad area, they don't. Is that the person who phoned's fault. When society gives up on you, you give up on it, there is no longer incentive to conform to its rules.

As for respect, the government doesn't respect you, big business doesn't respect you, the media doesn't respect you. The people in these areas that are rioting have just realised that before you.

good point Mama. My dad grew up in Hackney in the 50's on a council estate. He went to a decent school but this school was burnt down in the 1980's. What changed?

I think people need to take responsibility for their actions and stop blaming society etc and get rid of that chip on their shoulder.